
Class 

Book__ 
Copyright N° 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE 
EVOLUTION OF LOVE 



By 
EMORY MILLER 




Revised Edition 



NEW VORK: EATON & MAINS 
CINCINNATI : JENNINGS & GRAHAM 



»\ 



U»nARYofCON«3RFSS 
Iwo Cooler Received 

SEP 10 j 90f 

-j- Cooyneht Entry 
CLASS/J XXc M No, 

1 8/1 7 c 

COPY 3. 



Copyright, 1892, by 
A. C. Mc CLURG & CO. 



Copyright, 1907, by 
EATON & MAINS. 



BRm 

W07 



CONTENTS 

Preface 7 

Introduction 1 1 

PART FIRST 
IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

Chapter I. — Being, as Perceived 27 

Perceived facts, existence and dependence — Each implies self -existence, inde- 
pendent being — Self-determined — Personality — Theistic conclusion, God — Atheism 
a renunciation of thought — Agnosticism and oversight — Pantheism — Theistic 
formula. 

Chapter II. — Being, as Conceived 47 

Conception not picturing, but discriminating — Conception of God — Perfect 
action— Perfect being perfectly self-determined— Perfect thought in perfect action — 
Primary unit — Whence all variety — Intentional — Unconditioned — Self-love,- the 
nature of perfectly self-determined egoism— Founds altruistic freedom— One with 
love — Involution of truth, holiness, moral authority, good — Founded by love. 

Chapter III. — Being, as Conditioned 81 

Relative distinguished from absolute consciousness in God — Differentiates 
thought from thing — The beginning — Nexus betwixt infinite unit and finite many — 
. Creator— Benevolent — Pantheism — Altruistic spirit — Self-determined spirit distin- 
guished from spontaneous spirit, or disposition — Holy Spirit — Endless process of the 
universe — Conditioning and determining — Summary. 

PART SECOND 
IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

Chapter I. — Creation . , 115 

System of divine activities upon which arise spontaneous and self -determining 
life, other than God — Dependent personality — Methods — Evolution of self -existent 
reality the main question — Conditioning action — Chosen — Purpose to realize all 
beneficent ideals — -Faith and utilitarianism — Love all -conditioning — Creation 
perfect in affording conditions to perfect universe — Ideal universe the dominating 
condition to creation — Determined by dependent persons — Free, harmonious, 
secure — Developed from lowest intelligence and power whence self-determination 
could arise — Disharmony — Selfishness abandons the ideal — What must love do? — ■ 
Supernatural intervention — Makes good conditions of correction and recovery — ■ 
The incorrigible — Companionship of finite with infinite. 

Chapter II. — The Genesis of Evil 173 

Evil not an original principle — Good elements perverted — Disordered self-love — 
Selfishness — First perverter — Devil — Self-love the basis of harmony — Perverted 
the genesis of evil. 



Chapter III. — The Solution op Evil 194 

Problem discriminated — Evolution of love can only afford conditions for solu- 
tion — Finite persons must determine — Personality must be held inviolate — Power 
nor justice, but grace, only, can afford the conditions — Not an afterthought — Sub- 
jective motivity — Faith and persistence, analyzed and outlined — Six facts, basis of 
faith — Susceptibility to love and aversion to evil the lines of eternal security — 
Freedom, harmony, security the matured conditions for universal, eternal good — 
Cannot be created — Developed by faith — Practicable to persons of least intelligence 
— Objective motivity — Outer incentive — Persistence of love — Conquest of might by 
right — Disposition of evil results — Mastery of limitations — Uncorrected evil elimi- 
nated by self-defeat and self -limitation — Retribution — Motivity to selfishness 
abolished — Future state — Future probation rejected — Self -sinking of personality. 

Chapter IV. — The Atoning Fact 272 

Love's subjective test — Unsatisfactory theories — Lacking atoning fact — The 
ideal to be realized — Action which realizes — Changeless authority of ideal propiti- 
ated by action devoted to its realization — Atonement — Agony of love — Self -assumed, 
unimpaired in character and power — Sufficient — Parental theory — Sacrificial — 
Vicarious — Ransom for sinners, affording recovery from sin. 

Chapter V. — The Revelation of the Atoning Fact 302 

Occasion for revelation — Identification of Messiah — Human and divine nature — 
Internal evidence — Gradual disclosure of divine nature — Gethsemane — Calvary — ■ 
Resurrection — Divine attitude the real "mercy seat" — Divine agony the real 
"blood of sprinkling." 

Chapter VI. — Eschatology 333 

Doctrine of last things — Perfected universe — Not a fixed end — Equipment for 
future cycles — Defeat of evil — Persistence of faith, hope, love — Individual destiny — 
The innocent — Faithful — Selfish — Incorrigible— Penalty, fact, mode, duration — 
Self -sinking of personality — Perishing — Harmonious universe. 



GLOSSARY OF CERTAIN TERMS, AS USED IN THIS 
BOOK 

Absolute. Without necessary relation; a self-sufficient unit. 
Absolute truth. The self-consciousness of the Infinite Being; the 

infinite ideal. 
Abstraction. Thought, as disengaged from realities. 
Action. The exercise of energy; force. 
Actualize. To enact; to practically fill out or copy an ideal, plan, 

or purpose; to realize. 
Altruism. Objective action, especially benevolence toward others. 
Anthropomorphism. Pictured or imaginary conception of a spiritual 

being as a formal organism. 
Attention. Voluntarily directing thought to any object. 
Being. Actual existence. 
Condition. A force, relation, fact, or circumstance which supports, 

limits, or modifies any act, person, or thing. 
Conditioned. The state of being limited, modified, or dependent. 
Conscience. The perception of moral authority. 
Conscious. Self-perceiving. 
Consciousness. The fact of self-perception. 
Conscious self-determination. Consciousness of intention in one's 

own action affecting his nature or character. 
Determination. To enact, make, modify. 
Egoism. Concerning one's self. 
Finite. Limited, dependent. 
Ideal. A conception built up of ideas, or a conception of a perfect 

thing. 
Ideal being. A mental conception of a perfect being. 
Implications. Unperceived facts, relations, or inferences involved 

with accepted knowledge. 
Independent. Self-existent, self-determined, unconditioned. 
Infinite. Without limitation; perfect freedom. 
Involution. Infolding or intermingling of contents. 
Nescience. Denial of knowledge other than of phenomena. 
Ontology. The science of being. 
5 



6 GLOSSARY 

Perfect being. Ideal being realized in perfect action. 

Person. A being who determines his own nature or character in 

any or all respects. 
Personality. The power of self-determination. 
Posit. To lay down, place, or establish conditions, propositions, 

or affirmations. 
Reality, or, the real. That which is enacted, as distinguished from 

what is only thought or planned. 
Realize. To enact, actualize, make. 
Self -consciousness. One's knowledge of his susceptibilities and 

powers. 
Self-determination. Making or modifying one's own nature or 

character. 
Selfishness. Chief devotion to himself on the part of a dependent 

being. 
Self-love. Devotement to being or becoming one's best possible 

self. 
Self-perception. The mind's perception of its own actions ;_ con- 
sciousness. 
Thing, i. An actual object; 2. A wholly limited or dependent 

obj ect. 
Thought. 1. A perception, conception, idea; 2. Cognition, knowing 

as distinguished from doing. 
Unconditioned. Action or being to which means, conditions, or 

instrumentalities are unnecessary. 



PREFACE 

Among the facts which justify publishing a revised 
edition of this work the following may be mentioned: 
First, the large number of persons who have professed 
to have gained specific and long-needed help from the 
first edition suggests there may be many others who will 
be similarly benefited. Secondly, the uniform and almost 
sole objection to the book, made by readers and re- 
viewers, has been that its "too closely packed and con- 
densed" argumentation makes it "hard to read." The 
objection demands something to facilitate the reader's 
grasp of its important though subtle themes. This revi- 
sion seeks to supply this need by expanding over-compact 
statements and more explicitly indicating the relation 
betwixt chapters. Thirdly, besides the high apprecia- 
tion which the work has received by its careful readers 
in general the author has derived special encouragement 
from the very high estimate placed upon it by distin- 
guished thinkers and critics, among whom have been 
Gladstone, Iverach, and Watkinson, in Great Britain; 
Drs. Spaulding, Bowne, and Magoun, and Bishops 
Hamilton and Fowler, in America; with Drs. Stuntz 
and Smith, in Asiatic missions. Fourthly, from the many 
requests we have received to publish a revised edition, 
from persons whose judgment we cannot but profoundly 
respect, we are convinced that the demand for the work, 
though not wide, will be continuous, and, perhaps, will 
increase with the progress of thought. 

This book was originally written as the author's answer 
to himself of questions which had been shirked, slurred 
over, or inadequately answered by every writer and 
7 



8 PREFACE 

speaker he had read or heard on these themes. It per- 
tains to the foundation convictions; asks, and aims to 
answer, the question, What must I think ? 

In the plan of the work the Introduction seeks a clear 
understanding of what is meant by the question, What 
is truth ? and how it may be validly answered ; and, What 
are legitimate bounds of human inquiry? This leads to 
the view that whatever is necessarily implied in the fact 
of being must be truth; hence, Part First is an inquiry 
into the "Implications of Being." 

In this inquiry it appears that the fact of existence, 
or being, is the first fact concerning which the question 
is met, What must I think? And as perception is our 
first mental act our first query is, What is our perception 
of being? Hence, our first chapter is entitled "Being, 
as Perceived." 

As the next mental step following perception, in the 
process of knowing, is forming a conception, or idea, of 
things which we have perceived, we proceed in the second 
chapter to discriminate what conception of being we 
must form ; or, rather, what conception naturally or nec- 
essarily arises upon the mind from our perception of 
being. Therefore Chapter II is given the title, "Being, 
as Conceived." 

Chapter III, entitled "Being, as Conditioned," is 
mainly a continuation of the second chapter, but more in 
detail, and closes with a summing-up in twenty-three 
propositions giving a more full and rounded statement of 
our conception of being. These three chapters involve 
what the author regards as the only philosophy of which 
he is aware that is successful in the sense that it clearly 
discriminates the "primary unit" which, in its evolution, 
expands into a valid system which covers and accounts 
for all variety. 



PREFACE 9 

Part Second, "Implications of Love," takes up love 
which in Part First appears as the nature of the "primary 
unit" and exhibits it as the originating and conditioning 
force which in its evolution is working out the problem 
of a personal universe, free, harmonious, and good. 

While Part First involves a system of ontology 
(science of being), Part Second discloses a system of 
cosmology (theory of the world), together constituting 
a system of evolution, or constructive philosophy, which 
regards systems of physical evolution as merely incidental, 
whether true or false, and renders theodicy (vindication 
of God) superfluous. Of course, psychology and natural 
science are recognized and employed in the work by way 
of analysis or illustration, and the structural sciences, 
theology and ethics, are affected by its conclusions. The 
Bible, though quoted occasionally by way of apt expres- 
sion or illustration, is not employed in the argument. 



INTRODUCTION 

Superstition, opinion, discrimination! Three 
epochal words ! The first has had its day, the second its 
noon, the dawn of discrimination is upon us. The spirit 
of our day indulges no remark with more complacency 
than this : "The age of superstition is past." Though a 
doubt may exist as to whether superstition is vanquished 
or has only changed its forms, we may safely believe it 
broken in some departments of life and largely superseded 
in others. But it may be well to observe what has taken 
its place as the mental temper in modern culture. But 
slight inspection is needed to convince us that the ground 
once held by superstition is now occupied by partisan 
opinion. Just as in ancient days a few tall spirits dis- 
cerned great, dominating truths, set in a narrow horizon 
of intelligence, so now comparatively few discriminate 
the solid ground of verified accuracy from the quagmire 
and quicksands of opinion. Not unfrequently we hear 
the most valid truths questioned, and the crudest opinions 
positively asserted ; and how rarely found is he who, hav- 
ing ascertained real knowledge in one department of 
thought, is wise enough to refrain from oracular speech 
in other, though unstudied, departments. It is much 
more easy to a lazy, dishonest, or cowardly man to accept 
as knowledge the assertion of smart or ponderous opinion 
than to undergo a painstaking ascertainment of truth. 
The honesty required in the search for truth seems as 
rare a quality now as in the days when superstition held 
the place now occupied by flippant opinion. 

Yes, the domination of superstition is past, the reign 
of opinion is upon us; when will the age of discrimina- 



12 INTRODUCTION 

tion fully come? That it will come we have not the 
slightest doubt ; that it has more representatives now than 
in any former period is quite certain. Perhaps opinion 
is the transition from superstition to accuracy. Moral 
honesty has long been held as the rightful rule in action ; 
when it becomes the rule in thinking men will demand 
as thorough conscientiousness in forming, as in carrying 
out, an opinion. Then the badge of intelligence will be, 
not information, but discrimination. Men will not ask, 
"How much does he know?" but, "How well does he 
know?" Society will then be possessed of the spirit of 
accuracy as now of that of novelty. 

How little honesty there is in the world is seen in that 
but few, comparatively, "hold fast that which is good," 
while almost none "prove all things." It is only half 
honest to adhere firmly to one's belief; the other and 
better half is to struggle that our beliefs be correct. To 
this lower stratum of honesty comparatively few dig 
down. The surface stratum is sufficient for popular com- 
mendation. 

This apotheosis of opinion in our day seems a repeti- 
tion of the state of things among the Greeks when 
Socrates arose in mighty protest against its frivolity, in 
the time of the Sophists. Then, as now, there had been 
the failure of materialistic philosophy; then, as now, a 
reaction from superstition; then, as now, the "popular 
rage" was a show of information, readiness to talk on the 
surface of any subject; then, as now, truth, justice, and 
good were regarded as mere conventionalities, while 
reality was thought to be in proportion to smartness of 
individual opinion. No better description of many 
modern leaders of popular opinion can be given than 
Schwegler's account of the Greek Sophists. He says : 

"The Greek Sophists, like the French Illuminati of the 



INTRODUCTION 13 

last century, displayed an encyclopedic universality of 
knowledge. Their relation to the cultivated public, their 
striving after popularity, notoriety, and pecuniary emolu- 
ment suggests the inference that their studies and activiti- 
ties were, for the most part, directed and determined, not 
by any objective scientific interest, but by external con- 
siderations. Wandering from town to town, announcing 
themselves as thinkers by profession, and looking in all 
their operations mainly to good pay and for favor of 
the rich, they naturally chose those questions of general 
interest and public advantage, though at times also the 
private fancies of certain men, as the objects of their dis- 
course. Their principal strength, therefore, lay much 
more in formal quickness, in subjective displays of readi- 
ness of wit, in the art of being able to rhetorize, than in 
positive knowledge. Their only instruction in morals 
consisted in disputatious word-catching or in hollow 
rhetorical show ; and even when their information rose to 
polymathy, mere phrasing on the subjects remained the 
main point. We cannot wonder that they descended in 
this respect to that empty external trickery which Plato, 
in the Phsedrus, subjects to so keen a criticism, and spe- 
cially because of its want of seriousness and principle." 

Recognizing the retirement of superstition and opinion, 
and the advent of discrimination, we recognize that one 
of the first suggestions made by this ruling word is the 
correct use of tests of truth. Beliefs of all thoughtful 
times have usually been cast in the same generic forms, 
five in number. These five forms have been termed phi- 
losophies. 

In the railroad switching grounds there is a man whose 
duty it is to move a bar of iron the space of three or four 
inches. By this means he directs one train upon its course 
to San Francisco, another toward New Orleans, another 



14 INTRODUCTION 

to the Atlantic seaboard. Thus the philosopher operates 
the switch in the mental world, and largely determines 
the course of thought throughout the network of science, 
literature, politics, law, morals, and manners. A mis- 
take at the switch means wreck to the train. Failure and 
corruption of manners, morals, and government, with 
their calamitous results, are largely due to inaccuracies 
of thought in the domain of philosophy. 

The differences between the five forms of philosophic 
systems depend upon what each takes as a test of truth. 
It is, therefore, of no avail to advocate one system of 
belief or oppose another unless a reliable test of truth is 
ascertained. If I take the senses as the sole test of truth 
I must become a materialist, sensationalist, or positivist, 
with Spinoza, Mill, and Comte. If I take the intuitional 
consciousness or feelings as the only test of truth I must 
become a mystic with Bohme and Schelling. If, again, 
the logical consciousness be my only test, then, with 
Berkeley or Fichte, I must discredit the reality of all 
external things and be an idealist. Or as an eclectic I 
may apply the tests of "progressive common sense" and 
thus join hands with Maine de Biran, Cousin, and Jouf- 
froy. Or, finally, I may reject them all and be a skeptic 
with Pyrrho in ancient, Hume and De Maistre in modern 
times. These old schools of philosophy have wrangled 
for centuries, but the only outcome is to make belief a 
matter of choice; and that is a scandal upon philosophy. 
The adopting one class of truth-tests to the exclusion of 
others is the vitiating germ of each system. But may we 
not find valid tests of truth upon which to found true 
"all-round" philosophy and abiding knowledge? 

That self-evidence is the ultimate test of truth goes 
almost without saying. But the validity of the means 
by which self-evidence is recognized is the disturbing 



INTRODUCTION 15 

question. When a thing is seen to be self-evident we can- 
not ignore its truth without conscious mental or moral 
degradation. But how may we practically come at things 
so that their self-evidence may appear? The means by 
which self-evidence is recognized are, then, the 

Practical Tests of Truth. — We may safely say that the 
organ or faculty through which knowledge is gained is, 
in a general way, the test of the correctness of that knowl- 
edge. The difference in sounds can be decided not by the 
eye, but by the ear. The sense of smell cannot distin- 
guish colors ; this must be done by the eye. In like manner 
the correctness of perceptions and relations must be tested 
by the reason; and the facts of personal identity, free- 
dom, and moral sense can only be known through the 
intuitional consciousness. 

Then, we say that the practical tests of truth, are of 
two classes, generally termed consciousness and the 
senses — when applied in departments of knowledge in 
which, severally, they are the organs of knowing; not 
otherwise. The old wrangle of materialism, for example, 
arose from taking the senses as the only test of truth; 
and because personal identity, free will, moral obligation, 
or God could not be tested by the senses these truths were 
questioned or denied. This is the whole gist of the infi- 
delity often vented by rhetoricians and secondhand 
thinkers who do not discriminate sufficiently to know 
what is the pother. The idealists, on the other hand, 
taking the logical consciousness as the only test of truth, 
could not affirm objects of sense. Thus these two schools 
shoved each other out of existence. Each denied the 
existence of what the other was sure. 

Right application of truth-tests is the way of escape 
from these indeterminate systems. It consists in (1) 
the application of the testimony of the senses in verifying 



16 INTRODUCTION 

knowledge externally derived; (2) the test of conscious- 
ness in mental or spiritual phenomena; (3) the agree- 
ment or mutual corroboration of these where both classes 
of phenomena are concerned. 

Admitting this to be a true putting of the case, how 
can I be certain that these tests are valid in their respec- 
tive spheres? We answer: 1. Only by their use, as such, 
can we acquire knowledge. 2. They are felt and acted 
upon as necessary and final by all men. 3. Without them 
there can be no progress. Arts, industries, and sciences 
could never have been achieved except by this use of 
them. The progress of the world has been in, spite of 
the old philosophies, which abused these tests by misap- 
plication. Instinctively, or as a matter of course, men 
accept truth as it appears self-evident — through the senses 
on the physical side, or to the inner consciousness on the 
spiritual side ; and where self-evidence arises from mutual 
corroboration of both sides the result is felt to be demon- 
stration. If, disagreement arise, as between these poles 
of truth, it simply leads to the detection of inaccuracy 
in the perception of original facts. 

But now comes up the question, Are these criteria of 
knowledge real ? That is to say, these tests decide what 
is true to us, but if we were otherwise constructed might 
not truth be other than what we find it to be? Or, in 
other words, how can we know that what conforms to 
our consciousness and sense is truth, independent of our 
structure? We answer: Sciences, arts, and industries 
projected and carried out in accordance with these tests, 
yet having for their subject-matter things and forces 
outside and independent of our structure, nevertheless 
result successfully; that is, bring about progress. Sub- 
stantial progress is a practical test of tests. The law of 
gravitation and our consciousness of mathematical rela- 



INTRODUCTION 17 

tions are true among the stars. A few years ago the 
planet Uranus was supposed to bound the solar system 
with his orbit, but his wabblings were eccentric beyond 
what, according to the law of gravitation, could be 
accounted for by the influence of known bodies. Hence 
astronomers believed there must be some large unknown 
body hovering beyond Uranus and thus affecting him. 
No telescope, however, had as yet discovered such dis- 
turbing force. Whereupon Leverrier set about reducing 
by mathematical calculation the excesses of Uranus to 
definite mental conceptions; and upon these conceptions 
of the logical consciousness he determined at what point 
in the heavens the unknown but disturbing influence 
should be located at a given time. By his direction the 
observatories turned their telescopes upon that point, and 
at the designated moment the hitherto undiscovered planet 
moved into plain view of the observers. Thus the rational 
consciousness of Leverrier, conspiring with data fur- 
nished by the testimony of the senses, detected the silent 
footsteps of Neptune as he trod the solitudes of immen- 
sity. Thus, it is evident, these tests are valid, not only 
in us, but in the existing structure of the physical universe 
about us. They are, therefore, the practical tests of 
truth. 

Admitting, now, that these tests yield certitude in the 
relative universe — that is, the truth as it is embodied in 
the structure of all dependent or relative existence — may 
the practical truth, as thus ascertained, be affirmed as 
identical or in harmony with absolute truth — is truth in 
man one with truth in God ? This is one of the weighti- 
est questions of speculative philosophy. German phi- 
losophy, following Kant, held that no such affirmation 
can be made. The philosophy of the conditioned, as 
expounded by Hamilton and Mansel in Great Britain, 



i8 INTRODUCTION 

followed on the same line ; and the sensational philosophy 
of Mill suggested, "There may be worlds in which two 
and two make five." 

Of the tests we have named, manifestly none can be 
brought to bear on this question except pure reason, the 
rational consciousness — unless by revelation it might be 
submitted to other tests. How much and what can reason 
decide on this question ? We answer : 

i. That the "existing structure" of things harmonizes 
with absolute truth is at least probable. 

2. This "existing structure" has the binding force of 
absolute truth until a contrary system is demonstrated. 

3. The notion of "the true" is that truth is the rational, 
or formal, conception which may be explicated from a 
perfect thing or ideal. 

4. As "absolute truth" is only another name for the 
infinite ideal, to suppose there may be inharmonious or 
contrary systems of truth is to suppose other than one infi- 
nite ideal ; which, of course, is absurd and impossible to 
thought. 

Hence, the truths which are implied in the "existing 
structure" of ourselves and the universe are affirmations 
of absolute truth, and must be regarded as necessary 
"implications of being." 

From the foregoing considerations we can see that a 
valid system of philosophy resting upon absolute truth 
should be quite possible. And if practicable one may 
profitably discriminate for himself, and perhaps outline 
for others, such philosophic system. But some ask, 
"What good is there in philosophy, anyway?" This 
query often spoken is more often thought and felt by, 
perhaps, the majority of even intelligent people. It de- 
serves, therefore, a candid answer: 



INTRODUCTION 19 

Philosophizing is the effort of reason to arrange our 
knowledge so as to account for things, and to this extent, 
at least, understand them. A complete account of the 
relations of any class of things may be termed a philoso- 
phy of those things. But as all classes of things appear 
interrelated the need is felt of an account of all things, 
and especially of this interrelation of all things. Hence, 
a sufficient accounting must find all things interrelated 
as arising from one source. Hence, a complete system of 
philosophy can be professed in only a well-discriminated 
unit in which "thought and thing" are one; one entity 
from which all things possible may be derived and all 
thought explicated. Such philosophy when traced out- 
wardly into the universe of variety will become self- 
discriminated into its branches — ontology, the science of 
being; psychology, the science of the soul; cosmology, 
the science of the world ; physical science, the sciences of 
physical phenomena ; and, we may add, structural sciences, 
theology, ethics, politics, history, criticism, etc. 

The chief practical value of a philosophy is that it 
affords a just and well-balanced estimate of the relative 
importance of the various departments of knowledge and 
active pursuit. This enables one who is learned in one 
branch or a few branches of knowledge to avoid under- 
estimating other branches. It thus furnishes an antidote 
for narrowness and exaggerated self-consciousness of 
specialists in any field of study. Especially does it tend 
to correct that vanity which prompts masters in one line 
of study to pronounce oracularly upon other lines. 

Again, philosophy gives warning of the ultimate fail- 
ure and death of every system, practice, belief, or cult 
that is unphilosophic. Has it a philosophy? is the test 
question in the world of truth. However well backed by 
power, wealth, or learning any system, belief, or institu- 



20 INTRODUCTION 

tion may be, it must ultimately go down, renounced by 
the people who have held it or with it dragging them 
down, if it has not a self-sustaining philosophy. More- 
over, one who is conscious that his position in science, 
politics, or religion accords with a sound philosophy can- 
not easily be imposed upon by writers or speakers on 
these themes. The winds of doctrine which sweep over 
these realms of truth leave him unmoved. In his thought 
he has found the primary unit, the absolute One ; conse- 
quently he has found his own place in the world of 
truth, and does not run wild in the application of one 
idea, since he sees where it is modified by others. 

The "primary unit" which can thus render a system 
of philosophy possible — by accounting for all variety — ■ 
is, necessarily, recognized by reason as independent. The 
moment it appears dependent or limited, otherwise than 
by self-imposed limitations, its adequacy to account for 
universal variety disappears. These requisites, unity and 
independence, impose upon any system the decisive test 
of its claim to rank as a philosophy. Among the later 
attempts to account for the universe the most conspicuous 
are known as theories of evolution. 

"Evolution" is a term, which is applied to any theory 
which holds that the present is the product of the past; 
in the sense that no> new or late forces have been inter- 
jected at any point, but that all existing facts, energies, 
and phenomena are products of, or have taken their rise 
from, facts and forces which have always existed. While 
this definition of evolution as a general theory is suffi- 
ciently comprehensive, it has been unfortunate in its 
application in most systems which bear its name. Spencer 
and Haeckel apply it to the entire universe, except to its 
origin. They assume, without argument, the self-exist- 
ence of matter and force. These two factors given, they 



INTRODUCTION 21 

claim the possible evolution of all phenomena under the 
"natural laws of action and reaction." With Spencer the 
assumed force seems to be identical with the God of the- 
ology, but as such, so far as physical science may affirm, 
must be termed "the unknowable." With Haeckel, the 
assumed matter and force are regarded as eternal, but 
unconscious. Hence, with Spencer evolution is the 
method by which force has developed the universe from 
preexistent matter; while with Haeckel it is a theory 
positively atheistic which would dispense with an intel- 
ligent First Cause by holding the eternal existence of 
dead matter and unintelligent, blind force instead of an 
independent Creator. It is perhaps sufficient here to 
say that (1) evolution, as the method of creation and 
of conducting the universe, may be valid in philosophy; 
(2) materialistic schemes of evolution, as held by La- 
marck, Darwin, Spencer, Haeckel, and some others, are 
objectionable because arbitrary and narrow. Their arbi- 
trary assumption of "matter and force" as a starting 
point is unphilosophic in that an assumption is not a point 
where reason can rest in its study of the fact of existence. 
Philosophy must assume nothing. Their narrowness, 
in failing to consider the nature of matter and the nature 
of force, is inadequate to account for life and personality. 
And in neither force nor matter, nor in both together, 
do they find the "primary unit," but flounder in helpless 
duality. A philosophic and adequate system of evolution 
can exist only by a discrimination of the original unit 
which reason demands ; the nature of which unit involves 
all the possibilities of all being, and, in its evolution, all 
that is valid of the materialistic systems of Darwin, 
Spencer, Haeckel, and all like them, will appear as merely 
incidental, transient, and fragmentary detail. Hence, 
the nature of that unit, the essential basis of a self-sustain- 



22 INTRODUCTION 

ing system of philosophy, is sought to be discriminated 
and its evolution outlined in this book, The Evolution of 
Love. 

The Evolution of Love is a brief outline of our con- 
ception of being, infinite and finite. It is offered, 
modestly, we hope, though confidently, as a self-sustain- 
ing system which arises naturally upon the mind when 
freed from imposing preconceptions. It offers a view 
of being which, better than any we have hitherto found, 
shows the meaning of human life, duty, and destiny; 
suggests a groundplan, or philosophy, upon which other 
knowledge and culture can be built in right relation and 
proportionate significance; and renders the heart more 
susceptible to those motives which alone can make "life 
worth living." It is a conception which, we believe, 
affords clear vision to both thought and faith, and ex- 
poses the unworthiness of that bigotry which, in the name 
of faith, antagonizes reason, and that charlatanry which, 
in the name of reason, antagonizes faith. 

It is important to place ourselves in a favorable atti- 
tude to receive truth — an attitude at once humble yet 
hopeful. Humility may free us from false assumptions 
and the pretentiousness of acquired lore. Hope may re- 
lieve us from the dread of that sanctimonious mystifying 
by which crudity seeks to silence inquiry. And both may 
give scope to faith and culture which have been cramped 
by cherished but inadequate systems. 

That our terms should be the plainest and clearest at 
command is, of course, desirable, though we admit in 
advance that the defects of the writer and the difficult 
nature of the inquiry may, perhaps must, render portions 
of the work sufficiently difficult to require the closest 
attention to the force of each word. As no small pro- 



INTRODUCTION 23 

portion of the labor preliminary to this writing has been 
to clear our way of the rubbish of unsatisfying theories 
and effete argumentation, we shall not unnecessarily 
encumber ourselves, now, with its terms. The best we 
can do with many of them is to forget them. Nor shall 
we exhibit the metaphysical work of the clearing process, 
but simply attempt to outline the resulting system of evo- 
lution ivhich is the constructive output of our philosophy. 
We have sought, at all hazards, a clear view of truth, 
freed from the shifting and shirking of partisan advo- 
cacy; have sought the shrine where, in moral purity, 
rational accuracy, and emotional bliss, the soul finds rest. 
The method of this book is very simple. It is merely 
to recognize facts and what they unavoidably imply; the 
method by which mankind have about all their valid 
knowledge. This method is intolerant toward surmis- 
ings, plausibilities, ''legal fictions," and preferred beliefs. 
We find too, in philosophy, but little use for probabilities, 
even, but hold ourselves amenable to the question, What 
does reason require? What must I think? We offer no 
chosen or preferred opinions ; for, in philosophy, we have 
none. Our beliefs are held for the same reason we believe 
in the multiplication table and its implications — not be- 
cause of any appeal they make to our taste or convenience, 
but because, in discriminating candor, we cannot get away 
from them. 



PART FIRST 
IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 



Love is something more than the desire for beauty. . . . He who 
has the instinct of true love, and can discern the relations of true 
beauty in every form, will go on from strength to strength until at 
last the vision is revealed to him of a single science, and he will 
suddenly perceive a nature of wondrous beauty, in the likeness of 
no human face or form, but absolute, simple, separate, and ever- 
lasting. — Socrates. 



CHAPTER I 
Being, as Perceived 

Most ignorant of what he's most assured. — Shakespeare. 

With the assurance that truth, as we find it, is an 
affirmation of absolute truth, implied in the facts of being, 
we proceed to inquire, What are the implications of 
being? In this inquiry three cardinal questions arise in 
the natural order of knowing: i. What of being is posi- 
tively known? — treated in this chapter. 2. Resulting 
from this knowledge what conception of being must we 
form? — Chapter II, "Being, as Conceived.'' 3. Does 
that conception disclose the data of a philosophic system 
of evolution? Or, in other words, Do the truths which 
the fact of being thrusts upon us appear as merely a mass 
of fragmentary, unrelated ideas, or do they give us a 
validly discriminated conception of being in general ? As 
we proceed to ascertain the answers to the first and sec- 
ond of these interrogatories we shall find the answer to 
the third and present it in Chapter III, "Being, as Con- 
ditioned." 

Facts are enacted realities. Truths include, besides 
facts, the relations of facts and their inferences. But 
it is with facts as distinguished from other forms of truth 
we would chiefly deal. Fact, in our use of the term, in- 
cludes enacted realities, both perceived and implied. 
Facts which we directly perceive imply other facts which 
we cannot perceive, but which the mind recognizes that 
we must accept along with the perceived facts in order 
that the latter may be intelligible. Otherwise, the per- 
ception must be surrendered, which is to surrender knowl- 
edge. 

27 



28 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

Perceived facts are self-evident to our direct perceptive 
power by either consciousness or the senses. Implied 
facts are self-evidently implied in the perceived facts as 
either given with them or implied as their cause. For 
example, all human beings who have looked upon the 
moon have seen but one and the same side of that orb. 
That side is self-evident to their perception by the sense 
of sight. But the other side is a fact which they have 
never seen, never perceived, but which is equally self- 
evident to> them by direct implication. That is to say, 
the fact of the other side is directly, or necessarily, given 
with the perception of this side. The general fact, the 
moon, is the self-evident knowledge we have thrust upon 
us by perceiving its one side. That knowledge includes 
both sides, one perceived, the other implied, and equally 
self-evident. 

But this side of the moon is not the cause of the other, 
nor the other of this ; nor do we accept the fact of the 
other side as an inference from the side we perceive, but 
as a fact necessarily given in the perception, without 
which it is impossible to think of either. 

Another form of implication is that of cause, or 
dependence — the dependence of a perceived fact upon its 
cause, which cause may not be at all perceptible, yet is 
necessarily implied as the cause of the fact perceived. 
And as it is necessarily implied it is a self-evident fact. 
For example, here are two bodies, one living, the other 
dead. They are so termed because motion, the evidence 
of life, is perceived in one, but not in the other. But the 
perception of this evidence is not the perception of the 
fact we term life. Life is the chief fact which differ- 
entiates the two bodies, but it is a fact which cannot be 
perceived. It is an implied fact which is self-evident, 
and must be accepted with the perceived facts, or else 



BEING, AS PERCEIVED 29 

these bodies cannot be thought of as either living or dead. 
If it be not accepted, then the perceived motions signify 
nothing as to either life or death, and knowledge of such 
things must be given up. But such folly regarding life 
is not found among men, though it is often manifest 
regarding implied facts of another class. All recognize 
and act upon the implied fact, life, though it eludes per- 
ception armed with scalpel and microscope. All treasure 
it as precedent to all that is precious in its perceived mani- 
festations. "A dog, living, is better than a lion, dead !" 

As thus recognized life is not merely a quality or rela- 
tion or an inference, but an enacted reality, a self-evident 
fact, implied in the motion of beating pulse and heaving 
chest. The questions of whether and how pulse and 
breathing evince life are matters of relation and infer- 
ence, but the thing, life, is thought as a fact. This im- 
plied fact is of far greater importance than the perceived 
motions which evince its presence. It is recognized as 
being the enacted reality on which bodily motion depends. 
Perceived facts but manifest their implied meanings, and 
when isolated from them are worthless for knowledge. 

Implication is a term which comprehends all facts, 
relations, and inferences which must be thought in con- 
nection with admitted perceptions ; hence, implied facts as 
well as perceived ones are essential data in practical 
affairs as well as in constructing a rational system. For, 
data which we think and use as fact enter into our knowl- 
edge as fact with strength and validity, whether perceived 
by consciousness or the senses, or they come by implica- 
tions. Physical science, which boasts its basis of fact, 
could not subsist as science, with all its store of perceived 
facts, but for its chief fact, force, which is supplied only 
by implication. Only by the facts which they imply can 
perceived data be built into science. We may term them 



30 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

truths, or principles, but it is our use of them as facts 
which enables us to construct the sciences. 

It cannot be affirmed that in perceiving material ob- 
jects we really perceive all their properties. Nor can it 
be claimed that all, or even many, of the phenomena of 
mental operations are noted by consciousness. Enough, 
however, are perceived to enforce definite discrimination 
of one material or mental fact from others. Hence, when 
it is said, we perceive a fact, it is this definite discrimina- 
tion that is meant ; not a perception of all which the fact 
contains. And in the case of implied facts it is not 
claimed that they force upon our recognition more than 
what distinguishes them as definite facts. 

These facts of implication may draw after them other, 
even a whole train of implications, and so may give us 
a well-defined conception of an object which is not, at 
any point, open to perception. Hence, there are objects 
conceived as well as objects perceived. The former may 
be greater in every way than the latter, but our appre- 
hension of them can arise only in connection with, what 
is perceived. Hence, in attempting to trace the evolution 
of love, we must begin with some perceived fact, or facts,, 
which must imply the facts and conditions of such evolu- 
tion. If in the tangled morass of ignorance and doubt, 
termed human life, we can perceive a solid bank from 
which to spring an arch which by its self-sustaining 
coherence may lift its extending curve until it rests firmly 
upon the shore of destiny, let us not mourn the structures 
which have fallen. If such firm structure exists, and our 
task is but to accurately locate it and test its firmness, 
not too soon can we set about the work. If it is discover- 
able to thought it must be found in the implications of 
our being, and the base from which these implications 
are projected can only be "being, as perceived." 



BEING, AS PERCEIVED 31 

Perception is knoiving. A question upon which many 
differences have arisen among philosophers is this : What 
is perceived? Connected with this are the other ques- 
tions : What is necessarily implied in the things perceived ? 
And what is merely apparent, or, at most, but possibly 
implied? It were a weary and worthless task to point 
out all the theories which have been wrought from differ- 
ent views of these questions ; hence it will not be attempted 
here. Let us be content with what all are compelled to 
admit, with what is perforce common ground, namely, 
that within ourselves we have the direct perception of 
being. This much, at least, is reality. We do not have 
this perception of each other, but each for himself, alone, 
knows himself as being. He does from this perception 
infer that there are other beings, but he knows positively 
and directly one, and that is himself. He does not know 
how he can be as he is, but simply perceives directly that 
he is. This knowledge he cannot deny, he does and must 
directly perceive it, it is his perceiving self ; he perceives 
himself as perceiving. 

Sensational philosophy has tried to show that this self- 
conscious action results from sensations externally 
given. But this is an attempt to show how we are as 
we are, but it does not account for the fact of a perceiv- 
ing agent, a perceiver who perceives himself in the act 
of perceiving and distinguishing these sensations. At 
best this philosophy can only locate the perceiver in the 
sensations, and thus require the sensations to perceive 
themselves. But in this move it does not get rid of a 
conscious actor, or the reality of being. Besides, when 
the past, and now impossible, sensations are, in memory, 
called up and reflected upon, this philosophy shows no 
sensation to which this recollection and reflection can be 
attributed. The self-centered being who consciously per- 



32 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

ceives sensation, recalls sense-perceptions after the sensa- 
tions have ceased, reflects upon them, often acts emotion- 
ally concerning them, and perceives himself as so acting, 
is the one being whom I directly know. Thus the fact 
of being comes to me as direct and unavoidable knowl- 
edge. It is the first, deepest and broadest, of perceived 
facts. 

This knowledge is a knowledge of action — action which 
knows itself only in action. The act of knowing itself 
is consciousness, or self-perception. The absence of 
action is, hence, the absence of knowing, and, for aught 
I know, the absence of being. If there are beings without 
action I know nothing of them, inasmuch as I know my- 
self only as acting, others by reaction and interaction, 
but have no evidence of my own or any other's being, 
save action. 

Thus it is seen that the foundation of all my knowledge 
of reality is the fact of my individual action. Stripped 
of everything of which I cannot know the reality, this 
stands out, a definite, conscious power. This is being, 
as perceived; or, being as each person in himself per- 
ceives the fact of being. 

The term "being' ' does not, then, stand for an abstrac- 
tion which some have styled "pure being." An abstraction 
is nothing, and nothing can come of it. An acting, per- 
ceiving, determined or determining thing can alone be a 
real being. Self-perceiving action, conscious power, can 
in no way be questioned, avoided, or spirited away. Noth- 
ing but annihilation can rid one of it. All efforts to avoid 
it or call it in question are only attempted relocations — 
relocations in sensations of assumed external origin. 

The science of being, ontology, properly begins with 
this known reality, and proceeds to trace its implications 
and recognize the questions it raises. The mind, or soul, 



BEING, AS PERCEIVED 33 

as I know it, is this conscious power, an acting unit. If 
asked, "What is mind-substance?" the only answer I can 
give, or need to give, is, Power ; that which acts. I con- 
fidently give this answer, because this power knows itself 
as action, knows itself as enacted reality, a constant fact. 
It is not worth while to ask one how he knows he has a 
soul, for of the few things it is impossible for him not to 
know the chief is that he is a soul ; and this nothing but 
annihilation, nonbeing, can prevent his knowing. 

But there could be no science of being were this the 
only fact that could be known of being. For, when I 
attempt to think of only the fact, being, I am shut up to 
one view, namely : / am a self-existent being. Existence 
implies self-existence, somewhere; and self-sustained 
being is a fact given in the perceived fact of being; and 
if I know nothing to the contrary I am that self-existent 
one. But when I think further that a self-existent being 
must be independent, then I must infer that I am inde- 
pendent. But I find, as a matter of fact, I am not inde- 
pendent, and, therefore, am not self-existent. So, thought 
is confounded and brought to naught unless other facts 
of being may be known.' Such knowledge, to be valid 
for me, must come in the conscious action which I know 
as Myself; hence, I search myself for further facts. 

The nature, as well as the fact, of the being whom I 
know, and each knows for himself, is also given in our 
conscious action. That is to say, we are conscious of an 
order of action in our being. This order is what I recog- 
nize as the nature of the actor, myself. For example, I 
know myself as acting in self-perceiving, in sense-perceiv- 
ing, in reasoning, feeling, intending, choosing, doing, etc. 
Hence, I say it is my nature to perceive, reason, feel, 
will, do. Moreover, I know that in most, if not all, of 
these classes or orders my action is limited, and hence 



34 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

know that I am not only a causal power, but know that 
this order and limitation are imposed upon my actions, 
giving me the knowledge that I am dependent — depend- 
ent upon conditions. 

The persons may be few who logically define or de- 
scribe this nature. Its various classes of action may not 
be clearly or similarly traced by different thinkers ; never- 
theless, all men, alike, have these classes of action, and 
know themselves as thus acting, and equally well experi- 
ence the conditions which limit their action. Doubtless, 
all men equally well know themselves as limited, de- 
pendent. 

Dependent being is the reality which I perceive. That 
there must have been a time when I did not exist, that 
there are places where I do not and cannot exist, that I 
cannot perceive anything except as conditioned by time 
or space, that my knowledge is limited to action within 
myself and what is presented to me by sensation, that 
my volitions are carried out by means of reaction and 
interaction with forces external to me, which condition 
their efficiency, I am forced to recognize in my knowledge 
of my own being. Limitation is as surely known to me 
as being. 

The order of my action, termed my nature, gives me, 
first, self-perception, or consciousness. This fixes my 
knowledge of individual identity. This individual iden- 
tity abides unmoved through all the changes of feeling 
and thought which I undergo, and all the varied sense- 
perceptions and volitions which I perform. Whatever 
changes have taken place in my physique, actions, feel- 
ings, or states of knowledge, this has remained un- 
changed. My deepest, clearest, and permanent perception 
of my being is as an individual unit. 

I perceive also, in what is termed sense-perception, that 



BEING, AS PERCEIVED 35 

there are activities, or forces, other than mine which 
affect me — that change my states of knowledge and 
modify my feelings and activities. These give sharp dis- 
crimination to myself as limited by externality. Exter- 
nality, as here recognized, is not an empty abstraction, 
such as the ' 'non-ego" of Fichte, or the "not-me" of cer- 
tain other writers, but forces which impose upon me the 
knowledge of reaction and interaction — knowledge that 
I am acted upon. 

In some classes of my action I know myself as simply 
recognizing and interpreting, but not originating the 
action recognized. For example, consciousness, or self- 
perception, is but a recognition of the fact, my being; 
but the action which establishes and maintains the con- 
ditions of my being I do not perceive ; it is not my action. 
I only perceive its effects in conditioning action. In sense- 
perception my action is simply recognizing and interpret- 
ing sensations of sight, sound, odor, taste, and touch. 
In reason I compare perceptions, note their likenesses and 
differences, and draw conclusions from such comparison. 
The act of comparing is my act, but the action which 
gives likeness and difference to the things perceived, and 
fixes the forms in which I must know and compare them, 
is independent of me. In like manner, the sense of moral 
authority is imposed upon me, sometimes much against 
my desires, yet my action regarding its rise within me 
is but that of recognition and interpretation. In all these 
modes of action I know myself as but recognizing and 
interpreting that which I do not posit or cause. Thus 
my nature is known by me as a self-evident effect, de- 
pendent upon forces which evince themselves as other 
than I who recognize and interpret them. 

It is not claimed here that my interpretation of exter- 
nality discovers the nature of the external, but simply 



36 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

the fact of its existence. But this fact is as directly 
known in my acts of recognition and interpretation as 
the fact of my being. The interpreting act is part of my 
action, and the fact that I know this action is merely 
recognition and interpretation fixes upon me the knowl- 
edge that I am in interaction with, and dependent upon, 
some external action which founds and environs me. 
Hence, I know my nature is that of an individual but 
dependent power. 

But although the knowledge of myself is that of a 
dependent power it alone gives me the general fact of 
existence. And it is impossible to take up the thought 
of existence without implying self -existence. Nor do I 
derive this implied fact only as an inference from my 
own causal power, but it is directly given in the perceived 
fact of being; just as the fact of the other side of the 
moon — which man has never seen — is given in our per- 
ception of this side. The side we see is not the cause 
of the other side, nor caused by it, but is the perceived 
fact which it is impossible to think of without implying 
the fact of the other side. This side is a self-evident fact 
by perception, the other a self-evident fact by necessary 
implication. So, existence is a perceived fact, and self- 
existence is necessarily implied in it. 

But an apparent discrepancy arises now between two 
perceived facts, namely, being and dependent being — to 
the atheist an impassable gulf. But this discrepancy dis- 
appears as soon as we observe the implications of these 
facts severally. I cannot entertain the general idea of 
existence without including in that idea a self-existent 
energy. Self-sustained existence is necessarily given in 
the general fact of existence. My direct knowledge of my 
being is that of simple self-existence, but it is contradicted 
by the further perception of my dependent nature. 



BEING, AS PERCEIVED 37 

The implied fact of self-existence cannot be gotten rid 
of; no more than the implied fact of the other side of 
the moon, although I find by my dependence that / am 
not self-existent. I must concede action somewhere 
which exists of itself, and founds its own order of action. 
The self-perceived being, myself, whom I know as de- 
pendent, does not satisfy the fact of self-existence which 
is given with it. Though all limited beings stand along- 
side me, each knowing himself an acting reality, and 
though the number were indefinitely multiplied and the 
reality of their existence demonstrated to me, yet all 
these fail to fill out the thought, or supply the self-evident 
fact of self-existence which it is impossible to drop from 
the perceived fact of existence. Thus, though the being 
whom I directly perceive is dependent, the general fact 
of being, thus known, is impossible to thought without 
independence. The implied fact of independent, or self- 
existent, being is self-evidently given with my direct per- 
ception of the fact of being. 

But the fact of dependence has its implied demands. 
Not only have I perceived the fact of being, but I per- 
ceive the fact that I am dependent. When the fact of 
my being is modified by the fact of dependence the ques- 
tion of the cause of my dependent existence is raised, and 
by the law of reason which demands a cause for every 
change I am forced to recognize a self-existent, or inde- 
pendent, power as the cause of this change which gives 
rise to the fact of dependent being. The fact of my being 
is seen to be impossible without its dependence upon an 
independent being. Thus these two perceived facts, being 
and dependence, severally, compel the recognition of inde- 
pendent action, or being. The first implies it as a fact 
given in the perception of being, as the perception of one 
side of an object carries with it the fact of the other side; 



38 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

the second by necessary inference, inasmuch as depend- 
ent existence must imply an independent cause upon 
which it depends. 

There is no difficulty in thinking of self-existence once 
the fact of any existence is perceived ; it cannot be avoided. 
We cannot get rid of it. The real difficulty is to think 
how any being came to be. This "how" is impossible 
for us to solve, for the reason that like the "how" of all 
bottom facts it is outside the limits of human inquiry. 
But, however impossible it is to know how being is, the 
fact that it is is the most unquestionable of all facts. 

A bright young girl in Sunday school said to her 
teacher, "Somehow I do not get hold of the idea of an 
independent, or self-existent, being." 

The teacher replied, "You are perfectly sure of your 
own existence?" 

"I certainly am." 

"You are sure you are a dependent being?" 

"Yes, surely." 

"Can you get hold of the idea of the dependence of all 
being?" 

"No, it is impossible." 

"Then, being must be independent somewhere?" 

"Yes, certainly, I see the fact of being must, some- 
where, stand alone; and that must be independent being." 

"Then, having the fact of being, given in your own 
being, it cannot be doubted ; and the implied fact of inde- 
pendent being, which cannot be separated from it, is 
equally free from doubt?" 

"Yes, I see the fact of independent being is given in 
the simple fact of being which I perceive in myself." 

"But, a little further. You say you are certain you 
are a dependent being?" 

"I certainly am." 



BEING, AS PERCEIVED 39 

"How do you know that fact?" 

"I perceive it in my nature." 

"But can you think of dependence without implying 
an independent upon which it finally depends?" 

"I cannot." 

"Then you perceive two distinct facts, being and 
dependence, in each of which appears the fact of inde- 
pendent being. In the first it is directly given, in the 
second, it is implied as a cause." 

That I cannot perceive the independent actor is noth- 
ing as against the fact of such actor ; I am unable to per- 
ceive any actor but myself. Hence, the implied fact of 
an independent being is not placed in doubt by my ina- 
bility to perceive it. But, on the other hand, the implied 
fact, independent being, is all that can be thought from 
the two perceived facts, namely, my being and my depend- 
ence. Nor can one or the other of these perceived facts 
be thought, any more than the two jointly, without imply- 
ing independent being as a third fact. This I must accept 
or strangle thought at its birth. 

To a theistic conclusion the line of thought from this 
point is short, direct, and decisive : Perceived being and 
perceived dependent being imply an independent; inde- 
pendent being is perfectly self-determining; self-deter- 
mination is personality ; and perfect, or infinite, self-deter- 
mination is perfect, or infinite, personality; hence, the 
independent is the perfect, infinite, or unconditioned 
person, God. 

This is not claimed to be a demonstration, but is the 
implied fact of God as the only view possible to thought ; 
and, since it shuts us up to the alternative of accepting 
theism or wholly renouncing thought, it has all the argu- 
mentative force of demonstration. We must resign 
thought and play the fool if we say there is no God. 



40 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

The atheist can adduce no evidence to prove there is 
no God. He queries, "What is the origin of God?" But 
this is not the whole question. The real question is, 
How does being come to exist ? To this question of how, 
human thought can give no answer ; yet the fact of being 
is the first, largest, and surest of all facts — a fact which 
we all perceive. This perceived fact has in it the implied 
fact which cannot be gotten rid of, and without which 
the perceived fact of being is totally unintelligible, namely, 
that being is at some point self-existent, independent. 
I perceive the general fact, being, in perceiving myself, 
and this general fact cannot be thought except as self- 
existent, yet it must be accepted because perceived — a 
known fact. 

As being is, at some point or in some mode, self-exist- 
ent, it is independent — that is, unconditioned — and hence 
perfectly self-determined. Perfect self-determination is 
infinite freedom, infinite self-determination; and this is 
an infinite person. 

Hence, atheism is not a question for debate. It has 
no standing ground in thought, but is renunciation of 
thought. Between the theist and the atheist the ques- 
tion must be, Thought or no* thought — reason or folly? 
Thought, contemplating the fact, being, has self-exist- 
ent, independent being on its hands. The only way to 
get rid of it is to resign thought, abnegate reason. 

Agnosticism is the rejection of theism because God, 
as God, is not perceived by us. The blunder of agnosti- 
cism is in looking for this fact in the range of perception 
instead of in the realm of implied fact. It overlooks 
that God is an unavoidably implied fact forced upon rea- 
son by the perceived fact of being; and also by the per- 
ceived fact of dependence. 

It is objected : "You assume a self-existent God, why 



BEING, AS PERCEIVED 41 

may not we assume, instead, the eternal existence of 
matter, and that in the long eons of duration disturbances 
have arisen, by chemical influences, originating action, 
or generating force, which in succeeding eons has evolved 
all present existing forces and phenomena ?" We answer : 
This adroitly put query is made up of one false state- 
ment and five groundless assumptions, all making an 
unthinkable proposition. The false statement is that we 
assume God merely to account for existing phenomena. 
This is incorrect. This inquiry assumes nothing, and 
will accept nothing based upon assumption, but is com- 
pelled by perceived facts and the requirements of reason 
to accept God. The five "groundless assumptions" are: 
1. The eternal existence of matter. 2. That matter is 
substance, or stuff. 3. That disturbance by chemical influ- 
ences did arise or could arise in dead matter. 4. That 
these disturbances could originate action, or create force. 
5. That such action could evolve forces not originally in 
it, especially life, self-consciousness, self-determination, 
abstract ideas, and conscience. Further, the whole propo- 
sition is impossible to thought, for the reason that matter 
is dependent, hence cannot be thought as self-existent. 
That a dependent being, person, or thing can be self-exist- 
ent is unthinkable. 

Again it is suggested : If we assume the eternal exist- 
ence of matter and force can we not account for all exist- 
ing entities, forces, and phenomena ? Yes, but to assume 
a force adequate to the case is to assume the independent 
actor, identical with the God of theology; termed by 
Spencer, "Unknowable," that is, undiscoverable by physi- 
cal science. 

Pantheism is not so readily disposed of, for the reason 
that it has apparently more ground than atheism or 
agnosticism on which to stand. This is because panthe- 



42 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

ism seems implied in the fact of self-existence which is 
given in the general fact of being, perceived, in myself ; 
until I perceive that I am a dependent power, other than 
that upon which I depend. The burden rests upon the 
theist to show this. It must appear that to God my action 
is objective, external. 

Objection has been made to the idea of an infinite per- 
son. Spinoza, first, in modern times, and finally Matthew 
Arnold, advanced the criticism, that the infinite is limited 
by regarding it as personal ; that is, personality is neces- 
sarily finite, limited. But this is an oversight in this 
class of thinkers, an oversight which comes of regarding 
the infinite as the aggregate of all things. This is the 
same as supposing there can be an infinite quantity, which 
supposition is, of course, absurd and a contradiction in 
terms. Quantity is identical with limitation, and to speak 
of an infinite made up of limited things is but a contra- 
diction in terms. 

Another snare into which these eminent thinkers 
have fallen is in regarding personality as quantitative. 
Their charge of anthropomorphism and fetichism, upon 
theists, is because they suppose personality to consist in 
certain defined limits, personal organization, physical or 
mental. Anthropomorphism, the conceiving of God as 
a man on a large or infinite scale, is certainly a fatal 
notion in theology when the personality of either God 
or man is supposed to consist in quantitative dimensions 
or qualitative degrees. Fetichism,, the attributing life or 
personal identity to material objects, organic or inor- 
ganic, comes of the same quantitative idea of person- 
ality. Nor is there any radical change in the idea as it 
exists in the mind of the child who strikes the chair for 
throwing him down, the Bushman who worships his 
greegree, the pantheist who has the cosmos for his God, 



BEING, AS PERCEIVED 43 

or the agnostic who rejects a personal infinite lest per- 
sonality may impose quantitative limitations upon the 
infinite. We can discriminate the infinite only as uncon- 
ditioned action, absolute freedom. So, also, personality 
is not a quantity nor an organization of quantities, not 
a quality nor a collection of qualities, subject to degrees, 
but is purely a matter of original action. Size, weight, 
form, or physical organization cannot make man a per- 
son. Neither does thought nor feeling. He may have 
all these and still be a mere animal or machine if all his 
qualities are determined for him, in kind and degree, 
by some other power. But it is because man determines 
himself, in certain respects, that he is entitled a person. 
He can surmount and throw off many of his limitations, 
if he choose, or can impose upon himself other or greater 
limitations; but in either case he originates his choice, 
and initiates the process by which he is determined up- 
ward or downward in the scale of limitations. 

He alone forms his intentions; he may intend injury 
to others, but may be restrained from effecting such in- 
jury; yet he affects and degrades himself by such inten- 
tions, which none else can prevent. He may develop or 
abuse his qualities of mind and body, and thus elevate 
or degrade his nature, while his free choice either way 
determines his character. That character, good or bad, 
reacts favorably or unfavorably upon his natural quali- 
ties, and so gives them higher uses or deeper abuses, as 
he may decide. Because of self-determination, man 
forms a character, and character is made up of those 
qualities, so determined, upon which men estimate human 
worth. 

Again, progress is that which is attained by individuals 
and communities, by comparing simple facts and from 
these drawing conclusions. These conclusions, in turn, 



44 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

are compared, and from this comparison higher conclu- 
sions are drawn and acted upon. So sciences are built, 
governments are constructed and improved, culture is 
amplified, and progress in every way achieved by man's 
self-chosen use of himself and his environment, and his 
self-determining power to transcend his elementary con- 
ditions. Being a person, he is capable of rising from the 
limitations of savagery to the less limiting conditions of 
refinement; being a person, he can abuse the enhanced 
advantages of refinement, and thereby bring upon him- 
self the limitations of a brute. 

Self-determination is personality. A mere thing which 
is determined in all respects by action external to' it, as 
a grain of sand, a block of wood, or a graven image, is 
wholly without personality. Brutes, being but creatures 
of impulse, volitionally, never devoting themselves to 
self-improvement, nor deemed blameworthy for lack of 
such devotement, likewise fall short of personality. Per- 
son is distinguished from thing or brute in being able 
to determine himself to be this or that in any or all re- 
spects. I am free to form my intentions and determine 
my character, but am limited in resources from which 
to contrive or gain objects concerning which to choose 
and intend; and also limited in my instrumentalities by 
which to realize intentions. But these limitations are 
simply like hedges around my personality, merely limited 
resources and instruments. In the use of such resources 
and instruments as I have I am arbiter. In this respect 
I am free, without limit in the freedom, of choice. 

Personal consciousness resides in self-determination. 
Hence, I am a person and realize my personality, not in 
degrees and quantities, but in actual freedom in certain 
respects. But I am not a perfect, or infinite, person for 
these reasons, namely : I am dependent for my existence, 



BEING, AS PERCEIVED 45 

I have not determined my own nature, have not adjusted 
my environment, and am 1 dependent upon forces external 
to me for my interaction with all that is external to* my 
conscious power; in these respects I am an effect, and, 
hence, a dependent, or finite, person. An infinite person 
is thought as one who determines himself in all respects ; 
his nature, character, and environment are dependent in 
no respect. Independent action, or unconditioned action, 
however it may be phrased, is perfect, or infinite, self- 
determination ; and since self-determination is person- 
ality, infinite self-determination is infinite personality. 

That independent action is unconditioned action is 
axiomatic. That the independent is an infinite person is 
the same as to say he is the unconditioned person. He 
has no characteristic of an effect other than what is self- 
imposed. Whatever he is, he is by his own self-deter- 
mination, limited by no preexisting" conditions or prin- 
ciples. We hear, sometimes, of "eternal principles," but 
there are no such things apart from the action of the 
Infinite Being. A principle is nothing but an order or 
relation in actions, established by the actor ; without action 
or actor the principle vanishes. 

Moreover, we can discriminate nothing as infinite ex- 
cept self-determining power, nothing unconditioned but 
freedom; and all talk of anything being infinite except 
self-determining action and its qualities is but a jumbling 
of terms — often a use of the word "infinite" in the sense 
of "indefinite." The infinite cannot be pictured to our 
imagination, nor in any way grasped by our minds, ex- 
cept by logically discriminating it as an independent 
actor, the personal infinite. It is, therefore, impossible 
to think of independent action as other than personal 
self-determination, or of primary being as other than 
the Infinite Person. 



46 IMPLICATIONS OF BEIftG 

We close this chapter with the theistic formula : 

1. Perceived, dependent being unavoidably implies 
independent being. 

2. Independent being is infinitely self-determining. 

3. Self-determination is personality; and infinite self- 
determination is infinite personality. 

4. Hence, the perceived fact, my dependent being, un- 
avoidably implies the Infinite Person, God. 

"I am, O God; and surely thou must be." 



CHAPTER II 
Being, as Conceived 

No man hath seen God at any time. — Saint John. 

Our use of the word "conceived" or "conception" does 
not imply a picturing of God to the mind nor imagining 
how he might appear to our vision. Such idea of con- 
ception is admissible in works of fiction, but in philosophy 
must be wholly renounced. It is the snare in which those 
thinkers are caught who lay down the proposition, "The 
infinite is inconceivable." To use the word in this pic- 
torial sense in order to set aside the rational discrimina- 
tion of the infinite is merely to play "fast and loose" with 
the term. Only a rationally discriminated conception 
can be countenanced in reasoning. Such conception arises 
when we discriminate the rational implications of facts. 
A true conception answers to the question, What must 
be thought ? 

Perceived facts are worthless when isolated from the 
facts which they imply. These implications are enacted 
realities; the perceived facts are but such perception as 
we have of these enactments or of their effects. Perceived 
facts may imply in them a whole train of implied facts ; 
and these, with their relations to each other, may force 
upon us a definite conception of an object which is in no 
way open to perception. Hence, there are objects to be 
conceived as well as objects to be perceived. Scientists, 
for example, say they perceive physical phenomena, 
which they account for by the conceived facts which they 
term forces and which they clearly discriminate as facts, 
but never attempt to picture. 

47 



48 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

In discriminating the fact of being and its implica- 
tions we do not attempt to transcend the limits of human 
reason by trying to picture the infinite, but we simply 
recognize such contents of the perceived fact of being 
as are unavoidably, that is, self-evidently, implied, and 
hence must be affirmed. In our use of them the terms 
"infinite," "absolute," "independent," and "uncondi- 
tioned" have a rationally discriminated meaning, and like 
use is made of the term "conceived" in the title of this 
chapter. The significance of the title would be preserved 
if written, "Being, as Discriminated." 

It is vain to say that we have no> conception of God; 
for, indeed, all men have a conception of such being which 
they themselves form or accept from others. Some may 
say they have no such, conception, when they only mean 
that they have not formulated their conception and de- 
cline to do so. There are writers, even, who seem to 
think they have disposed of all conceptions of God by 
terming him "The Unknowable" ; but in this they simply 
declare that he is not an object of perception, and that 
it is not to the interest of their theories to 1 adimit their 
conception as a fact, or that it is too incoherent for defi- 
nition. All sane men, both crude and cultured, are more 
or less conscious of the implications of their being, and 
from this consciousness they explicate the more or less 
crude conception of an independent or supreme power, 
which conception underlies their beliefs and practices. 

There is no surer method by which to expose the fal- 
lacies of a system, the baselessness of a theory, or the 
false trend of a line of practice than to lay bare the false 
conceptions on which it rests. Therefore, since God is 
the first, deepest, and surest implication of our being, 
it is a matter of the greatest moment that our conception 
of him, especially so far as it is acted upon, should be 



BEING, AS CONCEIVED 49 

correctly discriminated. It may be claimed, by some, 
that "revelation has already given us the true conception 
of God." Without our either disputing or affirming this 
claim, here, the thought suggests itself, that as matters 
have stood for several centuries among believers in revela- 
tion, it would be worth their while, first, to agree upon 
a well-defined conception of God embodied in, not read 
into the Scriptures. 

Having seen in the preceding chapter the necessary 
implications of being as perceived, we now seek to ascer- 
tain the necessary implications of being as conceived; 
or, in other words, having seen that the perceived fact 
of being and the perceived fact of dependence compel 
us to accept the implied fact of an independent person, 
we now proceed to ascertain what is implied in this inde- 
pendent or infinite person. In accepting him what further 
must we accept ? 

Perfect action, simply, is what we recognize as infi- 
nite being. This conception is not made up of several 
ideas pinned together, but stands out as the primary 
power, sufficient to itself, which we must recognize as 
the independent, unconditioned unit. This conception 
implies that, 1. Being is acting, and acting is being, and 
ceasing to act is ceasing to be; and that, 2. Perfect action 
is perfect being, a consciously self-sustained nature, an 
order of action which is wholly self-dependent — that is, 
independent. 

But we desire to ascertain what kind of action is per- 
fect action? There are some kinds or classes of action 
which cannot be perfect, or unconditional, however pow- 
erful or free, simply for the reason that they are of a kind 
which is necessarily conditioned or related.. Perfect 
action must imply more than merely dynamic perfec- 
tion, mere almightiness. Action is reality, is life — real 



5 o IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

being; but it takes perfectly self -ad justed action to fill 
out the notion of perfect reality, perfect action, perfect 
being. That is to say, it must be thought perfect as to 
quality, as well as without degree. Unconditioned free- 
dom realizing qualitative perfection can alone satisfy the 
conception of perfect action. This implies that this con- 
ception includes an idea or notion of the nature of that 
action. The next step, therefore, in our outline, is to 
define this notion of the nature of perfect action. 

We think of a human mind as, not an aggregate of 
sensation, perception, consciousness, reason, memory, 
imagination, feeling, and will, but a single being who 
acts in these various modes, classes, or orders. In the 
same sense the infinite Person may be regarded in vari- 
ous orders, modes, or classes of action. Hence, we recog- 
nize two general classes of personal action, subjective 
and objective. 

Subjective action is that which we identify with being; 
objective with doing. The former includes all that per- 
tains to self-determination, or in any way determines the 
subject, the person ; the latter, all that pertains to choices, 
intentions, or volitions which are directed externally, or 
determine objects. In common usage the terms act and 
action generally signify objective action. For example, 
"We judge a man's character by his actions." But this 
is only an accommodated, or popular, not an exact, use 
of the word action. But in exact usage all being is action. 
In thinking of being we think of action, without which 
being cannot be, nor can it be thought to be. It is in 
this exact use of the term we speak of subjective and 
objective action. 

The nature is usually identified with subjective action. 
To speak of the nature of the infinite Person relates, 
primarily, to his subjective or egoistic action. We do 



BEING, AS CONCEIVED 51 

not conceive of his nature as an order of action pre- 
scribed by any thing or principle external to himself, to 
mold this nature, but we discriminate it as that independ- 
ent action which is consciously self-determined ; an order 
or nature of being, concerning which it is competent for 
us to inquire: What kind of a being is he; what is his 
nature ? 

Such inquiry may take either of two directions: first, 
as to what nature is implied in unconditioned, or infinite, 
action or being; or, secondly, what do his objective activi- 
ties in the world indicate regarding his nature? The 
first question is ontological, the second cosmological. 
The latter inquiry involves two assumptions, namely: 
That world-phenomena are of his objective activities; 
and that these are in harmony with his nature and con- 
stitute an intelligible exponent of the same. We eschew 
this cosmological inquiry for the reason that in itself it 
is indeterminate, and must at last depend upon ontology. 
Its course is strewed with many failures. For the present 
we pursue the ontological method. 

What does reason affirm is the implied nature of per- 
fect action? or, what is the nature of the unconditioned 
person ? 

As volition, in me, has to do with intentions and objec- 
tive activities, I distinguish that form of action from my 
nature as given in my consciousness. That is to say, the 
order of action which constitutes the conditions of my 
being is my nature, and is not established, or posited, by 
me. That order of my action which is termed intention, 
or purpose, or will determines the qualities which make 
up my character, and is posited by me. My nature is an 
effect, dependent in the fixed forms of action in which 
I consciously perceive it, while, on the other hand, my 
intentions are my free, self-originated action. My nature 



52 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

is given me. My character I, myself, determine. But 
when we think of the independent One we must conceive 
his nature, as well as character, as being volitionally self- 
determined. Hence, we must think of him as existing 
according to his self-chosen order. That is to say, nature 
and character are one in him,. Hence, we lay down, as 
distinctively the chief corner stone of our system, this 
all-dominating principle : 

i. Perfect action, conscious and volitional, is the 
highest generalisation, the ultimate or primary unit, the 
unconditioned, infinite being. . Perfect action is here 
recognized as ultimate unity, the goal of philosophy — 
infinite, unconditioned reality. It is perfect being, per- 
fectly self-determining, perfectly self-conscious, the per- 
fect person. Perfect action is perfect self-determination, 
or the independent realization of a perfect egoism. This 
affirmation scarcely needs to be thus reiterated, but, per- 
haps, needs a more explicit notice at this point. 

A work of art is termed the actualization, or realiza- 
tion, of a conception of the mind when it fixes that con- 
ception as an enacted thing in perceptible form. The 
Eiffel tower existed at first as a conception in the thought 
of the architect, but this conception was not a real tower. 
A very minute description of this tower was published, 
but this description was not a tower, and could serve 
none of the purposes for which the tower was intended. 
Only the actual building of the tower made it a reality. 
This was its actualization, realization, or determination. 
The action which thus fixes a conception, or practically 
carries out a definition or description, is determination. 
When a conception, or ideal, is thus actualized it is a 
determined, a real thing. Thus, practically carrying out, 
realizing, actualizing, or determining is simply enacting 
that which may be thought, either as a previously formed 



BEING, AS CONCEIVED 53 

conception or as the present self-consciousness of what is 
being enacted. 

When a person enacts in himself that which he thinks 
or desires to be he determines himself in that respect. 
His thought or desire is no longer a mere conception or 
wish, but a reality. This is self-determination. 

The person who conceives what manner of person he 
would be has, in this conception, an ideal self; and his 
effort to act out that ideal is his self-determination. If 
he succeeds in bringing his actual self up to the standard 
of this ideal self his self-determination is successful. This 
is conditioned self-determination — conditioned by the 
previously formed conception, or ideal. It is this power 
of self-determination, thus and otherwise conditioned, 
that constitutes conditioned, or dependent, personality. 

Perfect action cannot be thought of as conditioned by 
a previously formed conception, or ideal, which it seeks 
to realize, but its self-consciousness, as, in our thinking, 
we distinguish it from the action, is the absolute, or infi- 
nite, ideal. Hence, we have a clear conception that per- 
fect action is not conditioned even by an objective ideal. 
It is perfect self-determination, conscious of itself. 

The "ultimate unit" we find in perfect self-determina- 
tion. As perfect action is independent of interaction, 
or of any means or conditions, it must be a unit. It is 
not an interaction of several forces; for that would be 
related action, and, hence, not independent, but condi- 
tioned. The existence of more than one infinite being 
cannot be thought, for the reason that it would imply 
mutual relation, and, hence, mutual dependence and limi- 
tation. Neither can perfect action be thought as objec- 
tive action, for the reason that it must then be thought 
to act in relation to its object. Perfect action must be 
thought a self-realizing subject. Perfect, in the sense 



54 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

of independent, or unconditioned, action, it is without 
interaction and without relation. It is simply a perfectly 
self-determined unit. 

In a unit which is perfectly self-determined is the one- 
ness of "thought and thing," or, rather, the oneness of 
thought and action. Finite minds find it difficult to iden- 
tify thought and act. This difficulty arises from the fact 
that their self-determination is conditioned; and promi- 
nent among their conditions is that of the separate action 
of judgment and will, involving the acquirement of suffi- 
cient knowledge to form a conception or judgment upon 
which by act of will to determine themselves. On this 
account their determining intentions succeed their 
thought, and the thought is but an ideal or definition, 
not a reality, not a real thing, until it is enacted. 

Nevertheless, when we discriminate independent self- 
determination we recognize that perfect reality in which 
perfect thought is self-conscious; that perfect action 
which is perfectly conscious of itself. The self-conscious- 
ness of perfect thought is, identically, the self-conscious- 
ness of perfect action. Consciously perfect action and 
consciously perfect thought are only other phrasings of 
consciously perfect being. 

We admit that we may well hesitate to claim; that we 
find here the ultimate oneness of "thought and thing," 
since failure in this attempt has been honored by some of 
the greatest names in the history of philosophy. But the 
truth is we cannot see that the facts can be otherwise 
than as stated above. Some may query, How can thought 
and act be one? But this impenetrable "How" of being 
is distinctly what has nothing to do with this matter. 
As Professor Bowne has pertinently said, it is asking, 
"how being is made" — a question which, perhaps, only 
an infinite thinker can ever understand. 



BEING, AS CONCEIVED 55 

The reasoning which leads us to affirm that perfect 
self-determination is perfectly self-conscious seems to 
the writer without flaw. Certainly, action or being can- 
not be thought perfect if it is not perfectly conscious of 
itself. Hence, we must say, action cannot be perfect 
without perfect thought ; and perfect thought cannot exist 
except in perfect action. The perfection of either is in the 
perfection of the other. We cannot see otherwise than 
that unconditioned, perfect self-determination is one in 
thought and act. It is the consciously perfect unit. 

Although perfect action is not compound, but simple, 
yet we may affirm of it or explicate from it various 
phases or qualities of this simple unit without impairing 
our conception of it as an unconditioned unit. From this 
primary unit we explicate thought and thing. In our 
thinking we separate the affirmations of qualities, or 
properties, which this unit implies or founds. Hence, 
we may affirm that as perfect action it is perfect reality, 
and as the consciousness of perfect reality it is perfect 
thought, or the infinite ideal. But we cannot affirm, per- 
fection in either aspect of this unit if we deny, or suppose, 
the absence of perfection in the other; to suppose the ab- 
sence of infinite consciousness will prevent our affirming 
it perfect action, to suppose it less than perfect action pre- 
vents the affirmation of infinite consciousness. Turn it 
any way you will, this independent self-determination, 
which we have termed perfect action, is to our thought 
an impenetrable unit, but concerning which our thought 
compels us to admit certain affirmations. 

Although perfect personality is included in the affirma- 
tions which we have already made, it may maintain clear- 
ness of view to emphasize at this point as a fundamental 
truth that — 

II. Perfect action is perfectly intentional. We affirm 



56 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

of this unit both absolute will and absolute purpose; by 
which we mean that it is absolutely free action, is not 
related to, nor in need of, means, conditions, nor causes, 
and yet has a fixed, eternal intent. Self-determination 
is, essentially, intention. In the various classes of our 
action there is none in which we are self-determining 
except that in which thought and act are united ; and this 
is the action which we term intending, or the intent or 
inner purpose. But, with us, there are many conditions 
and classes of self-conditioning action which are needed 
as preparatory to' forming an intention, and many in giv- 
ing it effect. Yet we do not accomplish self-determina- 
tion without intention, no matter how full and favorable 
our conditions may be. And although we are often pre- 
vented from carrying out our intention externally, by 
external restraint, or by lack of means or opportunity, 
yet it determines our inner character. The intention to 
murder gives a man the character of a murderer al- 
though he may never have had the opportunity to shed 
a drop of blood. Intent is, subjectively, the union of 
thought and act. It determines the character of the ego, 
the inner, real self. 

But we are conscious of having constructed, formed, 
this intention; of having united thought and act, or de- 
sire and will. Hence, we praise or blame each other for 
only what we have intended. But in perfect being inten- 
tion is not conditioned, not made up of preliminary or 
accessory self-conditioning, but is unconditioned, and 
hence is perfect, or independent, self-determination. We 
easily see that if we were thus independent of all con- 
ditions, needed nothing by which to either form or 
effectuate our self-determination, we would be in our 
nature, as well as character, as we intend. Our intent 
would determine our nature, as now it does our character. 



BEING, AS CONCEIVED 57 

Hence it is correct to say that the nature of perfect action 
is unconditioned, eternal intent. 

The habitual intent of a man's life is that which he 
would be, and accounts for what he does or would do. 
It is the determining force in each person. One is intent 
upon fame, another upon wealth, and another upon pleas- 
ure. It determines his character and accounts for his 
minor and external acts. It is the supreme intention of 
his life. It is in this sense that we say concerning- the 
nature of the independent person: The unconditioned 
intention is the self-determination of perfect being. 
Intention is realisation zvith him. To be less were to 
be conditioned. Hence, the nature of perfect action, per- 
fect self-determination, the primary unit, the absolute 
reality, the independent person, is intentionally perfect 
being. 

Devotement is a term which may express the full 
import of what we discriminate as the nature of the per- 
fect being. His nature must be thought as action devoted 
to the realization of perfect being ; the constant, eternally 
self-realizing intent. When the intent involves the entire 
being, determines all his qualities, and contemplates 
neither change nor end, it may be termed devotement. 
And if this intent realizes itself immediately, achieves 
its realization without means or any other order of action, 
it is unconditioned, independent devotement. It is, at 
once, devotement and achievement. Thus independent it 
is not compound, but simple — action which is at once 
the life in which are infinite thought, wish, and will. 

Unconditioned devotement cannot be thought except 
as purely egoistic, perfectly free, perfectly self-conscious, 
perfectly self-chosen, definite and supreme. It has in it 
nothing aimless, fortuitous, or fatalistic. As devote- 
ment is central in our conditioned personality, it is single 



58 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

and eternal in the unconditioned person. It is neither 
obedience, on the one hand, nor caprice, on the other. 
Independent, it obeys neither necessity, instinct, nor con- 
ditions. Devoted, it is of infinite meaning, interest, and 
purpose. It is in no sense nor degree without intentional 
significance. 

In man, devotement is the self-disposing force which 
adjusts all the energies of his being. For example : Here 
is a man led out to be beheaded. This catastrophe has not 
been unforeseen by him. It has been contemplated in his 
self-adjustment ; and the course of life which has led up to 
this scene has been one of almost unrivaled hardship. Its 
sufferings have been equaled only by its renunciations; 
for the sufferer is of gentle breeding, scholarship, and 
saintly character. His was high caste, but he renounced 
it; repute, but he forfeited it; political promise, but he 
turned his back upon it; wealth, but he chose to be an 
outcast. As a preacher he made long tours of the Roman 
empire, paying his way from the earnings of his own 
hands. Nothing in the circumstances of this lawyer and 
scholar, nothing of worldly gain or ambition, can ex- 
plain his self-determined attitude as a preacher. He had, 
though in chains, argued and taught with Roman think- 
ers; though hungry, instructed philosophers at Athens. 
Friendless and buffeted, he had, by his eloquence, dis- 
armed mobs at Jerusalem; and, though a prisoner, had 
made kings and courts quail under his persuasive power. 
Neither insanity nor depravity can be a solution of this 
marvel of self-abnegation. Back of every other order of 
action, back of suffering, labor, speech, reasoning, plan- 
ning, praying — back of all these must be found the de- 
termining action which disposed and sustained the sub- 
ject of this career of restless, and apparently wasteful, 
endeavor. He himself disclosed the secret which had 



BEING, AS CONCEIVED 59 

puzzled friend and foe. Devotement to the realization 
of an ideal self — that ideal self for which he had been 
"apprehended of Christ" — he declared was this self-de- 
termining" force in his life. In this devotement there was 
nothing aimless, fortuitous, or fatalistic. It was free, 
self-conscious, wholly purposed, all-absorbing, self-de- 
termining. This was simply a life of devoted realization 
of ideal character. 

In the same sense, but unconditioned, the perfect self- 
determination of God must be thought of as absolute in- 
tent, devoted self-determination. No account can be 
given of the perceived facts upon which this inquiry be- 
gan — namely, my own being and dependence — until I 
recognize that which is implied by them, namely, the 
source of all reality in action which is consciously and in- 
tentionally, infinite perfection. Thought, feeling, and 
will may be explicated from it, or may be affirmed of it, 
but neither nor all of these terms adequately express its 
own generic unity. It is the independent being devotedly 
realizing his own perfection. It is perfect devotement 
for the reasons that it is perfectly self-conscious, perfectly 
purposed, and perfectly free. It is simple devotement 
for the reason that it is unconditioned. Being uncondi- 
tioned it is self-realizing. It is devoted achievement. 
The perfect devotement of any person is his supreme 
devotement; and hence the perfect devotement of an 
independent person is the perfect experience of infinite 
being. 

But this is to say that God's nature is devotement to 
perfection in himself ? Precisely ! Hence, another corner 
stone in our system is, 

III. The nature of perfect action is perfect self-love. 
Self-love, devotion to attaining one's best self, is not only 
the first right of being, but it is in finite persons the 



60 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

worthy, and in the unconditioned person the infinitely- 
worthy, devotement. Since in himself, alone, can uncon- 
ditioned perfection be realized, supreme self-love in him 
is the infinite and infinitely worthy nature. In this there 
is the abiding realization of perfect egoism. 

If it be suggested that an independent person might 
determine his own nature to be somewhat inferior to 
infinite perfection it must be admitted that the conscious- 
ness of being imperfect would condition and condemn his 
actual being. But this is an unthinkable proposition, for 
it proposes a contradiction which would require us to 
think of the independent as morally dependent, the 
unconditioned as conditioned, the inseparable unit as 
divided. It is self-evident that perfect self-determination 
must be conceived as a being of consciously infinite per- 
fection. 

Selfishness is a mode of self-determination which 
should be sharply discriminated. It is a form of devo- 
tion to one's self which is in detriment or antagonism 
to another. This implies that the one is related to that 
other, and is thus conditioned by him. Selfishness, there- 
fore, cannot be thought except as relative and conditioned, 
and consequently can have no place in our thought of 
the perfect self-determination of the infinite being. Since 
perfect action, realizing perfect being, is not and cannot 
be in derogation of any other, his devotion to perfection 
in himself is purely self-love; it is the supreme devote- 
ment of perfect egoism. 

We have no occasion to deny that infinite freedom 
can be thought as able to determine itself as a malevolent 
nature, but this would be to resign infinite freedom. Such 
a nature cannot be thought as realizing perfection of 
being, cannot be unconditioned. The nature of perfect 
action cannot be thought as other than devotement to 



BEING, AS CONCEIVED 61 

self-perfection, and this is independent self-love. The 
only conception of possible malevolence coming from the 
nature of perfect action, or being, must be that of an 
objective universe so related, or maladjusted, to the infi- 
nite self-love as to experience that relation as malevolent 
in its effect. 

Self-love appears plainly as the nature of supreme self- 
determination when we regard it as devotion to perfec- 
tion in one's self. In the perfect one it is perfectly, or 
infinitely, self-determining. In him it differs from self- 
love in man in that it is a self-established nature; not 
instigated nor influenced by any force or object external 
to himself, but is his self-determined nature. 

Self-love founds the infinite ideal. It does not copy, 
obey, nor seek the infinite ideal as if subject to an obliga- 
tion thereto, but it is that action the self-consciousness 
of which is the infinite ideal. In independent self-deter- 
mination the infinite ideal is self-conscious in the infinite 
reality; hence, self-love, as the nature of the infinite, is 
the actualization of a perfect self, whose consciousness of 
himself is the infinite conception, or ideal. 

I can conceive an ideal self which I may labor to attain 
actually. When I have actually realized this ideal it is 
no longer a conception which I seek to copy, but has 
become one with my self-consciousness, or consciousness 
of my self. But when we think of the unconditioned 
Person we necessarily think of an actual perfection that 
does not seek to attain, but is actually conscious of, infi- 
nite perfection. This consciousness of perfection, as in 
our thought we distinguish it from action, is the infinite 
ideal. 

For the purposes of our thinking, an ideal may be con- 
templated as such whether it be the self-consciousness of 
perfect being or an unrealized conception. In me the 



62 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

thought or ideal precedes the enacting, and it thereby con- 
ditions my action, but the perfect action is conscious of 
itself as perfect. This consciousness of its perfection is 
what we term the perfect thought in perfect action, the 
ideal in the real; but in fact both are real because one. 
In the highest generalization the infinite conception, or 
ideal, is the self-consciousness of perfect action, the infi- 
nite Person's knowledge of himself. From the foregoing 
considerations we give the following as our best definition 
of self-love: Self-love is that kind of action which in an 
infinite being actualizes, in a -finite being seeks to actual- 
ize, a perfect, or ideal, self. 

"The ideal" is a phrase which has especially two differ- 
ent applications. First, it is used to represent the unreal, 
that which is not actualized, or perhaps may be thought 
incapable of actualization. Hence, it is often applied to 
ideas, plans, or conceptions which are regarded as chi- 
merical, Utopian. Secondly, it has the sense of the perfect 
when applied to thought, plans, or mental conceptions. 
We may have a conception of a perfect house. This we 
term an ideal house, not merely because it is unreal, but 
because of its being as perfect as it is possible for thought, 
unembarrassed by the difficulties of realization, to con- 
ceive. But we designate this perfection as ideal to dis- 
tinguish it from that perfection which characterizes an 
actualized, realized, or determined thing. When this 
ideal house is actually built it may be termed a perfect 
house. Hence, we speak of God as perfect because he is 
actual perfection ; and of finite persons as seeking to real- 
ize an ideal self because their self-determination is a pro- 
cess toward realizing a conception, or ideal, of their best 
possible selves. 

IV. Self-love, by realizing a perfect egoism, founds 
perfect altruistic freedom. Egoism which is determined 



BEING, AS CONCEIVED 63 

by independent self-love must be thought unsusceptible 
to impairment. When so thought this ego has no object 
to attain, nor attainable, greater than his own perfection. 
Secure in his perfect realization of being, he is able to 
lavish the excellence of being upon any and all objects 
which he may posit or create; that they may be the objec- 
tive expression of such excellence — may be the sharers 
of that excellence, sharers with him whose perfection 
cannot be impaired through any possible extension or 
multiplication of finite being. Thus indiminishable in 
egoistic perfection, he alone is in a position to realize the 
"self-forgetfulness" of perfect altruism. He has no 
occasion to protect his own self-assured perfection. Per- 
fect egoism is the only possible condition which can 
afford perfect altruism ; and, hence, infinite self-love must 
be the only kind of action which is capable of altruistic 
perfection. 

Not only is his nature the occasion, but must be thought 
the perfect self-assurance which, if he choose to act ob- 
jectively, must warrant unreserved unselfishness; main- 
taining the highest egoistic self-consciousness through- 
out a perfect altruistic determination. 

A powerful, expert swimmer, with apparent self- 
abandonment, plunges into the sea and rescues a drown- 
ing man. But what seems to inexpert observers as self- 
abandonment is, really, the fullest consciousness of his 
power as a swimmer. It is this full consciousness of his 
powers which frees him from attention to himself and 
enables him to concentrate his attention upon another. 
One less able must divide his attention between the safety 
of himself and that of the other ; but perfect ability, per- 
fectly devoted, is perfectly self-conscious in the self-for- 
getfulness of altruistic devotion to the rescue of the 
drowning one. The highest self-consciousness of the 



64 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

swimmer is present in the highest self-consciousness of 
the rescuer. The swimmer and rescuer are one. Con- 
scious perfection of either is in the perfect self-conscious- 
ness of the other. Thus perfection of being must be 
thought as a perfect egoism consciously capable of a 
perfect altruistic life. The independent devotement 
which realizes a perfect ego conditions in his own perfec- 
tion a complete altruism. A perfect egoism- is requisite 
to afford perfect altruism ; and perfect altruistic freedom 
is the requisite exponent of perfect egoism, and the per- 
fect determination of self-love is requisite to both. And 
this is why self-love is the only thinkable nature of that 
perfect action which is perfect being. 

The conception of perfect being, then, is that of an ego 
so secure and independent in the realization of perfect 
being as to be free to limitless altruistic devotement. 

V. Self-love and love are, subjectively, one. Self-love 
differs in no* respect from love in the subjective nature or 
character of any being. Under either name it is the 
nature of supreme self-determination. Self-love is but 
a convenient term by which to confine attention to- love's 
action when considered subjectively. The action is the 
same, and love is its simplest and most exact designation. 
Love is termed self-love when it is devoted to perfection 
in one's self, but since it may determine forms of mani- 
festation objectively the term, "self-love" becomes inap- 
propriate. We offer the following as true definitions of 
the terms : 

Self-love is the action which is conscious of an ideal 
self which it, unconditioned, realizes; conditioned, seeks 
to realize. Love is that action which is conscious of an 
ideal which it, unconditioned, realizes; conditioned, 
seeks to realize. 

Thus it is seen they are subjectively the same — action 



BEING, AS CONCEIVED 65 

which realizes or seeks to realize an ideal of which it is 
conscious — but the term "self" must be dropped when the 
action is viewed in altruistic freedom, and spirit. And 
this is true of love, whether in the infinite Person whose 
perfect self-determination founds the infinite ideal, or in 
man by whom an ideal self is objectively contemplated. 
My self-love, if pure, is devoted to the realization of an 
ideal character in myself. If I perceive evidences of that 
ideal character being realized in another person I love 
that person. My devotion to that ideal, my love of that 
character, is the same whether realized in myself or in 
another, although in the one case it is termed self-love, 
and in the other simply love. My supreme devotion to 
that other person may work the highest self-determina- 
tion in me. I realize my highest self-love in my love of 
that person ; and so long as my self-love derogates nothing 
from that other it is pure love toward him. If it dero- 
gate or detract from him it is neither love nor self-love, 
but selfishness. It is devotion to an actual self which 
rejects the ideal. 

Supreme devotement is love, whether it be of an infinite 
or finite being. Whatever degree of devotement any 
being may have for himself or any other, whether respect, 
obedience, admiration, or love, his supreme devotement 
has no higher, fuller mode than love, devotion to* the real- 
ization of the perfect. It may thrill the narrow conditions 
of an animal, may concentrate the self-determining 
powers of man, harmonize the aspirations of seraphs, or 
be the nature of the Infinite. Conditioned or uncondi- 
tioned it is the actualization of its consciousness of the 
highest, best ; simply and only love. 

Greater simplicity, perhaps, in exhibiting love as the 
nature of perfect action may be attained by a regressive 
statement. For example : 



66 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

i. Love when objectively manifested is beneficent 
altruism, benevolent, unselfish, or disinterested action to- 
ward others. 

2. Infinite benevolence, or perfect altruism,, can be 
actualized only by one in whom is perfect altruistic 
freedom. 

3. Perfect altruistic freedom can exist only in perfect 
egoism. 

4. Perfect egoism can be realized only in independent 
devotement to perfection of being. 

5. Independent devotement to perfection of being is 
the nature of perfect action. Hence : 

Love, which when objectively manifested is unselfish- 
ness, beneficent altruism, practical benevolence, is thie 
nature of perfect action. 

Every step of this statement is so transparent, and the 
leading back of love from the form of objective benevo- 
lence to love as perfect action so self-evident, that a 
further discussion of them would be superfluous. 

The line of development which we have adopted, how- 
ever, is not the regressive, but the progressive, method. 
This is briefly as follows : 

The independent being whom, from my being and de- 
pendence I am compelled to recognize as the perfect 
reality, is perfect action; perfect action implies perfect 
self-consciousness ; the self-consciousness of perfect action 
is the infinite ideal ; action which has in it the conscious- 
ness of an ideal which it realizes is love; love's self- 
determination is an egoism that has in it perfect altruistic 
freedom — freedom to limitless benevolence; and, finally, 
devotement to the determination of being and perfect 
altruistic freedom are two characteristics of perfect 
action which afford in it the disposition, spirit, or spon- 
taneity of perfect altruism, perfect unselfishness. 



BEING, AS CONCEIVED 67 

When the nature of perfect action is developed object- 
ively no one can hesitate to recognize it as love. Yet it is 
equally clear that such development of love could never 
originate except in the nature of an infinite being. It is 
that action which founds in itself a perfect egoism which 
it devotedly realizes. Love is not necessarily related 
action, but is self-realizing; and has occasion for objects 
to love only as they may represent its own ideals, or may 
be instruments of their realization. Such occasion for ob- 
jects of love is a need of only dependent beings. In the 
independent, love constantly actualizes conscious per- 
fection. 

VI. Love is the grand involution of all qualities which 
must have their origin in independent action. We can 
say of love, as of God, it is good, true, holy, and beautiful, 
but none of these qualities is love. We can explicate from 
love, as we do from perfect action, thought, wish, and 
will, but neither nor all represent its absolute singleness 
of act. Poets and orators have thrilled the world with 
their marvelous sayings about love, but when we would 
state what love is the difficulty is the same as that which 
is encountered in the effort to define the nature of the 
infinite, namely, the difficulty of representing action to 
which the relation of subject to> object is not essential. 
The good, or goodness, in the sense of beneficence, the 
metaphysical sense, means no more than a practical 
quality or result. We may say, "Devotion to the perfect 
achieves the highest good," but this does not define per- 
fect action. It only states one of its results or qualities; 
that is to say, devotion to perfection is of a good quality, 
for the reason that one of its results is the highest good. 
Thus "the good," in this exact sense, can only express a 
quality or result of this action, but it is not that action. 

The moralist, in his generalization of positive qualities, 



68 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

often rests in what he terms the "absolute good." But 
"absolute good," besides being an unintelligible expres- 
sion, is and does no good except as it is founded as a 
quality or grouping of some of the qualities of perfect 
action ; and then it is a quality, or set of the qualities, of 
love. Used in this moral or religious sense, "the good" 
simply stands for holiness, truth, and happiness, merely a 
group of qualities and results. In like manner holiness, 
beauty, and truth, severally, are in one way or other inci- 
dent to perfect action, but none nor all of them give us 
the essential nature of this action. But love, which is not 
a property, quality, or result, is that self-determining 
action which founds those qualities and results. 

Another traces the beautiful to "its source in the abso- 
lute ideal," but the "absolute ideal" — which can be beauti- 
ful only by being pleasurable — is an empty abstraction 
which cannot be pleasurable except as the consciousness 
of perfect action; and then it is love's consciousness of 
actualizing the perfect. Others make much of "eternal 
principles," but these can be clearly discriminated only as 
properties of perfect action, which thoroughly knows it- 
self ; and this is but the self-consciousness of infinite love. 

As to the infinite ideal, we have seen it is simply the 
perfect being's consciousness of himself. Separated, in 
our thinking, from, his action, it is the infinite ideal ; it is 
that which men are groping after when they speak of 
"eternal principles." They fail to grasp it, and therefore 
deny it, because they seek a theoretic system' instead of 
an ideal unit. Pilate failed to understand his august 
prisoner who bore witness "unto the (ideal) truth," the 
divine consciousness, hence he skeptically queried, "What 
is (theoretic) truth?" We recognize this consciousness 
of perfect being as the infinite self-consciousness of love ; 
the infinite ideal in constant realization. 



BEING, AS CONCEIVED 69 

The true, or absolute truth, is, as we have seen, the 
infinite ideal. We cannot distinguish it from the con- 
sciousness of perfect action; and, as said before, this is 
identical with the self-consciousness of unconditioned, or 
infinite, love. Love has in it not only practical perfection, 
the good, but also the infinite ideal, the true. 

An ideal is a conception of a unit from which ray out 
various qualities and implications which are implicit in 
this unit. The truths or principles thus implicit in this 
unit are dependent upon it, and have their significance 
only as implications of the ideal. "Eternal principles" 
are true only because the infinite ideal is the true; and 
they are eternal only because perfect action, the perfect 
being, is eternal. They bear no part in constructing the 
truth of that ideal, but are, themselves, constructed as 
phases or affirmations of it. 

As an ideal is a unit it comprehends in unity that which 
may be analyzed or studied as its contents in severalty. 
A complete and systematic knowledge of these contents 
would be a theory, or science, of that ideal. The infinite 
ideal is truth in the sense of a simple unit in which is 
all theoretic truth. None but an infinite thinker, we must 
presume, can comprehend or understand the theory of the 
infinite ideal ; that is, have a theoretic knowledge of abso- 
lute truth. 

Relative truth arises with objective action on the part 
of God in establishing dependent being and its incident 
relationship ; and then relative truth is right relation to, or 
harmony with, the infinite ideal. One may ask, skeptic- 
ally, Might not truth have been constructed differently 
from what it is ? Or, with that acute thinker, Mr. John 
Stuart Mill, he may suggest that truth, in some worlds, 
may be so different from what it is in this that "two and 
two may make five." Let such a one reflect that these 



70 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

suggestions are the emptiness of folly unless there can 
be other than one infinite ideal ; unless there is other than 
one perfect consciousness of perfect action. 

Holiness, or the holy, is the perfectness of intention in 
free action. Hence, the intended, or purposed, perfect- 
ness of perfect action is infinite, or perfect, holiness. It 
is that quality of perfect being which stands out to our 
thought when we contemplate the intentionally perfect 
self-determination of God. If his nature were necessi- 
tated it could have no moral quality. Or if it could be 
thought perfectly free, yet capricious, aimless, or fortu- 
itous, it would be destitute of moral quality. But free 
self-determination is moral, and is perfectly righteous, or 
holy, because of its free intention in purposed perfection. 

We have already recognized purpose, or intent, in love, 
the devoted nature of perfect action, and, hence, may 
affirm that perfect holiness is the moral quality of the 
purposed perfectness of love. When we say that God is 
holy we mean that he is intentionally perfect. Perfect 
personality, perfect egoism, is infinitely holy. Perfect 
action, being, egoism, personality, cannot be thought ex- 
cept as intentionally what it is, and wholly so. Hence, 
as we have seen before, perfect action is wholly ethical ; 
and its ethical quality is perfect, or infinite, holiness, since 
love is purely devotement to the perfect. 

Moral authority arises in purposed perfection. The 
holy possesses an authoritative sentiment, which inten- 
tionally self-achieved perfectness imposes upon all other 
intentional action. Love, because of its perfection, is the 
criterion, standard, or authority which indicates what all 
other action ought to be. Figuratively, it is the wheel to 
which all other action must be adjusted in order to 
achieve its highest being and welfare. Hence a universe 
of dependent persons must find the true significance of 



BEING, AS CONCEIVED 71 

their being in conformity with love. If love act objec- 
tively in evolving a universe, for example, this action 
must impose the authoritative sentiment of holiness in all 
which it determines or conditions. Holiness, perfectness 
of intention, is imposed as the authority of an ideal which 
thus demands that it ought to be actualized. Though 
this objective action be subject to conditions, limitations, 
oppositions, or possible defeat, yet if it purpose the best, 
that purpose is perfect, and therefore holy. Perfectness 
of intention, the holy, has, then, the authoritative senti- 
ment which love founds in all which it determines, con- 
ditioned or unconditioned. 

Art aims to copy certain ideals in material forms, that 
is, seeks to copy mental conceptions. To the extent it 
succeeds in actually representing, on canvas or in marble, 
for example, these mental structures, termed ideals, the 
artist's work is said to approximate perfection. In the 
respects in which the material copy fails to fully repre- 
sent the ideal, such material copy is defective. The ideal, 
therefore, is the criterion or authority according to which 
action approves or condemns itself. 

Thus, also, in conditioned self-determination the action 
recognizes the ideal as the sacred authority which cannot 
be marred, however much the realizing action may fail 
to interpret or copy it. This sacredness of the ideal in the 
intention is one with the holy, that which is untarnish- 
able. The copy or model may be defective, marred, or 
destroyed, but the ideal is unimpaired. Hence, the ideal 
personal nature or character is holy, though the enacted 
realization may be or may become unholy. But this 
authority of the ideal is not because of its unreality, but 
because of its conceded perfection. 

But ideal perfection cannot be authoritative unless it is 
realizable, or has been actually determined. That is to 



12. IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

say, there can be no such reality as moral authority or 
obligation without there being somewhere the perfect 
realization of perfect thought, the perfect actualiza- 
tion of the infinite ideal; which is to say, that moral 
authority or obligation has, yes, must have, its origin in 
the ultimate oneness of perfect act and thought. I may 
picture to myself an ideal manhood up to which I would 
greatly desire to measure in practice, but I can feel no 
obligation to measure up to it nor condemnation for neg- 
lect or failure to actualize it if actual perfection nowhere 
exists., not even in God. And men would never dream of 
actualizing an ideal self but for the fact that its moral de- 
mand is pushed upon the conscience of each one of 
them by that One of actualized perfection who' provides 
the conditions of their dependent being. This moral de- 
mand, or "moral imperative," commonly termed con- 
science, arises in the structure of the human soul without 
giving any account of itself other than that it is the senti- 
ment of the Independent One; that intentionally self- 
achieved perfection which constantly realizes the infinite 
ideal, that perfect action, infinite love, which places and 
maintains in mankind the conditions to their intentional 
self-determination. 

But the Independent, whose action maintains the struc- 
ture of dependent persons, cannot impose this moral im- 
perative unless he, himself, is actually perfect. Actual 
perfection, or perfect action, alone places the independent 
being in a position in which his nature imposes what 
ought to be the nature of all other action. If perfection 
could be nowhere determined, realized, enacted, there 
could be no such thing as moral authority. Authority 
based upon anything else than actual perfection is not 
moral. We err if we suppose, with Kant, that morality 
derives its authority from its being "capable of universal 



BEING, AS CONCEIVED 73 

utility." "Universal utility" is an assumption which can- 
not be verified, except by accumulating universal data; 
hence, without such data, it is a gratuitous assumption. 
The moral authority, which is perceived in that best self 
which each human being recognizes as what he ought to 
be, is precedent to any assumption of utility. It is the 
absolute sentiment of perfect intention evincing in us the 
actual perfection of the Being on whom our being de- 
pends. No moral authority can be thought or felt except 
as the imperative sentiment of perfect action. It is the 
authoritative sentiment of perfection which is founded in 
the nature of each dependent person by his sense of de- 
pendence upon the Independent. 

God, by actualizing conscious perfection in himself, 
realizes absolute moral consciousness. Absolutely free 
to be as he is, the unconditioned One, or else to determine 
himself as falling short of infinite consciousness, short of 
realizing the infinite ideal, his purposely chosen perfec- 
tion evinces his perfect holiness. Hence, love, his perfect 
action which purposely actualizes his perfection, estab- 
lishes and maintains the authority of his perfect holiness. 

We say of a man, "He has purposed the best," or, "He 
has not intended as well as he knows." We thus com- 
mend his moral character in the one case, or hold him 
blameworthy in the other ; and to the full extent that he 
was free to purpose one way or the other. In precisely the 
same sense we must affirm of the nature of the uncon- 
ditioned being that it is freely and intentionally self- 
determined perfection. It is therefore, a wholly moral 
nature, because wholly self-determined, wholly inten- 
tional, and perfect. He is subject to no necessity, no con- 
ditions. He is absolutely a law unto himself. In this 
conception of being we see that the unconditioned nature 
is thought unconditioned for two reasons, namely, it is 



74 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

infinitely free, and intentionally perfect. Were that nature 
limited in freedom or lacking in intentional perfection it 
would be conditioned; hence, our conception of the un- 
conditioned is that it is wholly an ethical, or moral, 
nature ; that perfect action is purely ethical. The moral, 
the intellectual, and the aesthetic elements which are seen 
separate and to some extent independent of each other 
in man have their original oneness in the ethical nature 
of perfectly self-determined being. From above con- 
siderations we have another foundation stone : 

VII. Moral authority has its original ground in God's 
actual perfection. This perfection is the ultimate moral 
authority to the universe, in both its creative and created 
elements, dependent and independent. To the depen- 
dent it is superimposed, to the independent it is self- 
realized and, hence, self-imposed. The infinite awe 
termed "the holy" is the authoritative sentiment of the 
perfect. The moral imperative in God or man is the 
authority of a realized, actual perfect. This sentiment 
has no efficiency to compel obedience, but cannot be 
ignored or disobeyed without a resulting degradation to 
the being who rejects it, though the sentiment abides 
unimpaired. 

The holy is authoritative in that it imposes upon con- 
ditioned persons the obligation to be or do as in accordance 
with the perfect. Its authority is practical, since the 
person must experience defect or fault to the extent he 
neglects or rejects it. Its authority is wholly moral for 
the reason that it does not compel attention nor obedi- 
ence ; the person may attend or neglect, obey or disobey, 
at will. Its authority is independent in that it is the 
self-sustained sentiment of perfect being. It is the senti- 
ment of God, the absolute imperative, universally and for 
eternity. Hence, we must recognize the absolute ground 



BEING, AS CONCEIVED 75 

of moral obligation in the actual perfect; and, since the 
sentiment of holiness arises in actual or actualizable per- 
fectness, it is clear that free devotion to perfectness of 
intention, in God or man, is holy. 

Disobedience to the sentiment of the perfect, by choos- 
ing to determine his nature as beneath perfection, can- 
not be thought of the unconditioned person without! 
thinking of him as having abandoned unconditioned be- 
ing. For did he reject his conception of perfect being 
he must become conscious of not only self-degradation, 
but also of a moral authority over him in the rejected con- 
ception which, though abandoned, abides unimpaired as 
a realizable ideal; abides as the criterion of what he 
ought to be, and thus conditions and condemns him. 
Therefore, to think of the unconditioned nature, we must 
think of unconditioned action as purposely enacting a per- 
fection in which holiness is founded and duty anticipated. 
Thus love, the unconditioned nature, founds the holy as 
the quality of its intention. 

To say, What God ought to be he must be, expresses his 
holiness as imposed duty, which is erroneous. But to say, 
God is what an unconditioned person must be, implies 
absolute holiness as a natural quality of unconditioned 
being — a quality of infinite love. In man's dependent 
nature is the consciousness of an ideal self, obedience to 
which is duty, but supreme devotement to which is a love 
which anticipates duty. 

The beautiful is that in perfectness which gives pleas- 
ure. As perfect action is not merely almightiness, but 
is perfectly adjusted action, it has that perfection of pro- 
portion which is intrinsic beauty. And as love is the 
action which constantly realizes the infinite ideal it is 
that perfectly adjusted action which is infinitely beau- 
tiful. Pleasure is derived from contemplating an ideal, 



76 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

but especially from the achieving or possession of that 
ideal in realization. Doubtless there, is satisfaction or 
appreciation derived in "the good" when it is attained 
in the practical realization of an ideal. But pleasure, 
rightly discriminated, results from such practical realiza- 
tion, not because it is good, but because of its perf ectness. 
Perfectness, the fitting, whether ideal or real, thus dis- 
tinguished as pleasurable, is the beautiful. The fact that 
perfection gives pleasure irrespective of practical good 
shows that the beautiful is a sentimental quality of the 
perfect ; and that love, the perfect nature of God, has in 
it "the perfection of beauty." 

That the beautiful arises as a quality or property of 
the perfect is further evinced in its close association with 
the holy — so close, indeed, as to make it almost a question 
whether it is not a subquality of the holy. As the origin 
of moral authority is found in the perfect, we find also in 
that authority the primary differentiation of pleasure and 
pain. Conscious self-degradation which comes of ignor- 
ing or disobeying the perfect has the absence of a positive 
pleasure, and also the presence of displeasure — in human 
terms, pain or agony. The necessary implication of in- 
trinsic pain in the consciousness of self-degradation, by 
rejection of the perfect, implies the alternative that the 
realization of the perfect is the source of intrinsic pleas- 
ure. Hence, we conclude that love, the nature of perfect 
being, has, consciously, in it both the authoritative senti- 
ment of holiness and the pleasurable sentiment of beauty. 
It is impossible to think of God as perfect being without 
thinking that he experiences infinite rapture. 

The good, or goodness, though an expression often 
used in the sense of the perfect nature, falls short of ex- 
pressing more than a quality of that nature. We may 
say, God is good ; but not, The good is God. The latter 



BEING, AS CONCEIVED 77 

phrase expresses merely the empty abstraction of an 
impersonal deity. To say, The nature of God is good, is 
correct as to a single quality of his nature, but the good 
is not God, nor the nature of God. It is but one of the 
qualities which infinite love, his nature, founds. In like 
manner it may be said, he is holy, sublime, or all-wise, 
but these terms merely affirm certain qualities or mani- 
festations of his nature. It cannot be made clear to 
thought that goodness, holiness, truth, or beauty is God 
or his nature. They are not, one nor all, identical in 
thought with love, his self-determining action; and for 
the reason, that love is action while they are but qualities 
of action. Since the good is only a quality of action, it is 
not real, except when determined by some reality. As 
a quality is nothing other than a property of some actual 
being, it is a chimera unless it is realized in action. 

Chief good is the satisfaction of love. It is the highest 
practical excellence, or worth, of being; the highest 
practical satisfaction of the perfect nature to himself, and 
of finite beings to themselves, individually and as a 
whole. Being, alone, has positive good. Nonbeing, or 
nonexistence, is nothing, contains no possibilities, is 
worthless. It cannot be thought good in any but a nega- 
tive sense; in which it may be deemed a less evil than 
abused, self-degraded being. But it cannot be a positive 
good, although there may be modes of being which, by 
their own determination, are so evil as to be worse than 
worthless. Any type or mode of being which has in it a 
satisfaction, interest, or possibility better than nonbeing 
has the quality of goodness ; and any such being which re- 
alizes perfection of its type attains its chief good. Hence, 
"chief good" signifies the highest practical satisfaction 
or worth of true being; and it is, therefore, correct to 
affirm of the perfect Being that he realizes infinite good. 



78 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

Since the possibility of good can be thought only of 
being, it subsists for dependent beings in two factors, 
namely, the conditions of such beings, and their self- 
determination in the use of these conditions. Hence, the 
good of finite being must, also, be achieved subjectively. 

For the independent being the possibilities for good are 
in but one factor, self-determination. Inasmuch as the 
unconditioned person must be thought as realizing infinite 
being, his being must found the infinite good. The 
infinite good, then, is not identical with love, but is love's 
satisfaction, a practical quality, or property, of absolute 
perfection. 

But all these qualities, the true, the holy, the beauti- 
ful, and the good, must each and all be but illusions unless 
they are enacted; each and all must be merely conven- 
tional unless they are founded in independent action. If 
they are nowhere so realized it must remain an open 
question whether they are real or realizable. Hence, 
without action of a nature which realizes them as its 
qualities they must remain in the region of myth. Since 
a quality is nothing but a property of action, the "highest 
good" can mean nothing other than the highest practical 
worth of being. "Absolute truth," the consciousness of 
perfect being, the infinite ideal, cannot be essential truth 
except as realized in perfect personality. We may say 
that relative truth is harmony with absolute truth, but 
both are only as our minds construe things unless absolute 
truth is realized in perfect action. So, also, the holy 
would be a superstition and beauty a dream unless 
founded in actual perfection. 

It is equally plain that unconditioned action cannot 
realize them, as obeying or seeking them as objects; for 
in that case such action would be conditioned by them, 
and hence could not be the unconditioned nature. There- 



BEING, AS CONCEIVED 79 

fore, action which can realize these infinite qualities must 
be thought of as the action which founds them. 

But, inasmuch as the fact of my own dependent being 
pushes upon me the fact of the independent, and the inde- 
pendent must be unconditioned, or perfect, being, and 
perfect being is perfect action, and perfect action is love, 
nothing can be thought more real than that perfect nature, 
love; whose practical satisfaction is the supreme good, 
whose self-consciousness is absolute truth, whose authori- 
tative sentiment is the holy, and whose infinite beauty is 
the fountain of limitless pleasure. 

Love is not to be classed with these qualities, but is 
that unconditioned action in which they are founded. 
Love is the only kind of action which we can think capa- 
ble of unconditioned perfection; hence, it is our only 
possible conception of the nature of an unconditioned 
being. Any other kind of self-determining action falls 
into conditions; love, alone, is sufficient to itself. It is 
independent, infinite. It is at once the conception and the 
achievement of the infinite reality — perfect being, re- 
joicing^ in infinite truth, goodness, holiness, and beauty. 
Love, independently realizing perfect being, immutably 
self-assured, gives those qualities living, permanent 
reality. 

Moreover, it is not only unconditioned, but, as such, is 
capable of being all-conditioning action. While it is the 
fullness of self-assured perfection, it is adequate to con- 
ceive, realize, and sustain a perfect system of dependent 
being, evermore. Only that which is perfect, independent 
self-determination can be thought to be the primary con- 
ditioning power. And since love is the nature of the 
unconditioned it is the nature of that action which estab- 
lishes original conditions, the force which originates 
action and assigns its laws. 



80 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

Love is the answer to the question raised in the former 
part of this chapter, "What kind of a being is He?" It 
is that which realizes perfect being. It affords the only 
and ample occasion for an objective creation, and renders 
to each dependent person a full account of one imperious 
fact — his own dependent, yet self-determining, being. 
Reality is action, action is life, perfect action is love! 

Thus, by following the order in which our knowledge 
naturally arises, beginning with the perceived facts, as 
given in self-perception and sense-perception, these, under 
the hand of reason, take the form of definite conceptions 
which become crystallized convictions which we must 
affirm, namely: 

I. Perfect action, conscious and infinitely free, is the 
highest generalization, the primary unit, the uncondi- 
tioned nature of independent being. 

II. Perfect action is perfectly intentional. 

III. The nature of perfect action is perfect self-love, 
realizing a perfect ego. 

IV. Self-love, by realizing perfect, that is, infinite, 
egoism, founds perfect, that is, limitless, altruism. 

V. Self-love and love are, objectively, the same. 
VI. Love founds all those qualities which must be 
thought as originating in independent action. 

VII. Moral authority has its original ground in God's 
actual perfection. 

These affirmations outline a conception of the uncon- 
ditioned One, but a philosophic conception of being which 
can satisfy reason must include conditioned being also. 
For convenience we deal with this in a separate chapter, 
though it is but a continuance of this inquiry into "being, 
as conceived." 



CHAPTER III 

Being, as Conditioned 

In Him we live, and move, and have our being. — Saint Paul. 

The implications of being have forced upon us the 
conception of an unconditioned person whose nature is 
love ; action which is a simple unit, at once the conscious- 
ness and realization of infinite, perfect being — perfectly 
self-conscious in perfect self-determination. Self-con- 
scious, it is the supreme devotement of self-determining 
act. 

We have been compelled, also, to recognize in this con- 
ception a life which is a perfect ego, capable of perfect 
altruism, or, in other words, an egoism which is perfectly 
self-dependent and self-assured, and is therefore perfectly 
free to evince his changeless perfection by unreserved 
devotion to other beings. This unreserved devotion to 
others is what we mean by "perfect altruism" ; a mani- 
festation, the highest and clearest, of independent egoism. 
It is a love which implies such perfect consciousness of 
egoistic independence that it can manifest its ineffaceable 
perfection in all the abandon of an unreserved external 
devotement; a manifestation which is an eternal benefi- 
cence and an infinite glory. 

Altruistic freedom, let us term this feature of infinite 
love. Failure to grasp this characteristic of perfect being, 
we suspect, has been a vitiating weakness in much of the 
philosophizing of the past. It has rendered thinkers 
unable to think their way out from an unconditioned God 
to a conditioned universe which is objective to God. They 
have argued that, to human thought, a finite universe 



82 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

which is originated by an infinite, or unconditioned, being 
is a contradiction. Hence, they have either denied the 
reality of an objective universe, which denial is panthe- 
ism, or they have failed to affirm the reality of the uncon- 
ditioned being, which is atheism, or, like the school of 
Sir William Hamilton, they have denied that God can be 
an object of human thought. 

We are not unaware that the difficult question of con- 
ditioned being is : Can the unconditioned be thought to 
erect objective being, without himself becoming con- 
ditioned? And, further, Becoming conditioned, can he 
be thought as abiding in unconditioned self-conscious- 
ness ; or must he pass into conditioned self-consciousness, 
and SO' subside as an unconditioned being? 

To these questions it were sufficient to answer : 

1. He assumes these conditions by himself establishing 
them; a thing which only an unconditioned being can 
be thought able to do ; for the bottom question of philoso- 
phy is, What is that force which has originated action 
and assigned its laws? 

2. The same independent self-determination which can 
be thought without them must be thought self-conscious 
in the action which founds and sustains dependent being. 
The facts that he consciously establishes the conditions 
to objective being, and that this objective action is wholly 
determined by him,, keep before our thought his abiding 
consciousness of his unconditioned nature. 

It is certainly plain that human thought is conditioned, 
but how this argues that an unconditioned being cannot 
be thought by us as acting in relation to an object has 
not been shown. That we are unable to discriminate 
that an absolutely self-determined being can conceive of 
relationship and act in relation to objects, without our los- 
ing the conception that he consciously and perfectly 



BEING, AS CONDITIONED 83 

determines his own action, is certainly an unwarranted 
surrender of reason. True, he must be thought as a sub- 
ject who is related to an object, but he must be thought 
as the consciously independent subject whose nature is 
absolutely self-determined, and who is independent in 
choosing to establish that object. If the conditioned 
nature of human consciousness were wholly the result of 
man's objective action we might be prone to think that 
the divine self-consciousness might, similarly, be the 
effect of his objective action. But there is not even this 
ground for our thinking that his objective action must 
efface the self-determined nature or consciousness of God. 
If a human being could by any means attain to uncon- 
ditioned action or thought it does not follow that his 
consciousness of that nature wherein he is conditioned 
and dependent would be lost. It would only show that 
he has determined in himself a mode of knowing and act- 
ing distinct from his relative and conditioned mode. Can 
we not clearly think of an independent being who, though 
consciously unconditioned in the determination of his 
own nature, may determine in himself a relative mode 
of knowing and acting without his being dependent upon 
it? The only valid conclusion of this matter is that we 
must think of God's nature as consciously independent, 
unconditioned, absolutely perfect, and also capable of 
forming a conception and maintaining a consciousness 
of any or all possible relations, conditions, and dependent 
objects. 

Moreover, much of the difficulty of this question results 
either from a confused or whimsical use of the terms 
"infinite," "unconditioned," "absolute," etc. Most of 
these thinkers fail to perfectly emancipate their thought 
of the infinite from the notion of quantity. Hence it is 
not surprising that they cannot think of the infinite with 



84 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

the finite "superadded," forsooth. But quantity is iden- 
tical, in thought, with limitation ; hence, a quantitive infi- 
nite is unthinkable and absurd. "The infinite," in our 
thought, is perfectly free action; "the unconditioned" is 
action which is without means or conditions, hence per- 
fectly independent ; "the absolute" is action which is per- 
fectly self-dependent, perfectly self-determined, in rela- 
tion to nothing in its self-determination. All come to the 
same, the independent. These terms can be strictly 
applied to only perfect action and its qualities; hence, 
only to a perfect person and his traits. 

But these terms do not, in strict use, apply to his objec- 
tive action, as thought by us, but only to an ego> whose 
action is perfectly self-determined in unrestricted freedom. 
And when we think of his determining a relative mode of 
consciousness in himself that consciousness is dependent 
upon him, not he upon it. Relation which may subsist 
between him and this relative mode of knowing and act- 
ing has no previously conditioning influence upon his 
determination of his infinite nature, but simply expresses 
the form of his act in determining the existence of that 
mode. He is consciously independent whether in omit- 
ting, establishing, or dismissing finite conceptions, con- 
ditions, and relations. They are incident to his deter- 
mination of altruism ; and altruism is dependent upon ego- 
istic perfection. If his altruistic determination could be 
thought as in some way at the expense of egoistic per- 
fection, or as an abridging of infinite perfection in him- 
self, there might be some ground for the position taken 
in Hamilton's philosophy of the unconditioned. But 
since love may exercise unrestrained benevolence because 
of its constantly realized self-perfection there appears 
nothing in its objective action to modify its unconditioned 
self-realization. All that Hamilton's school can validly 



BEING, AS CONDITIONED 85 

affirm is that the determination of divine altruism, or 
benevolence, must be conditioned. This we affirm in 
advance by having said that, while altruistic freedom is 
implicit in independent love, the determination, realiza- 
tion, carrying out of altruism must be by objective action, 
and, therefore, must be thought as conditioned. But none 
can deny that love abides egoistically perfect, the inde- 
pendent realization of the infinite ideal, even when it 
determines conditioned benevolence. 

An egoism which is perfect action must be thought 
unsusceptible to impairment; and such egoism alone can 
have perfect altruistic freedom, which is the essential 
condition to a benevolence which is perfect in kind and 
limitless in degree. An immutably perfect ego, only, can 
be thought as infinitely free or as possessing perfect objec- 
tive freedom. Hence, perfection of being must be 
thought as a perfect egoistic life which is perfectly free 
to a perfect altruistic life. It is requisite to the notion 
of a perfect ego that there is nothing in himself that is 
short of perfect freedom to act objectively, to freely choose 
what he will do, and in what method and according to 
what plan, if any, he will act. 

Our thought of the perfect freedom of God's nature 
is quite a different conception from that of his objective 
action. The former is independent, absolute; the latter 
is relative and conditioned. Altruistic freedom to act is 
in the former; altruistic action is the latter. Altruistic 
freedom is perfect freedom to act objectively, or not, as 
the independent being may choose. If he choose to act 
objectively our thought of his independent nature is not 
changed, we simply think of his objective action as rela- 
tive and conditioned. Hence, we must conclude that the 
question of harmonizing absolute being with his objec- 
tive, relative action is a question of differing modes of 



86 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

consciousness in God — the absolute consciousness and the 
relative consciousness; thus carrying the question back 
into the independent nature, where it belongs. 

If we bear in mind that the aim of human philosophiz- 
ing cannot be to discover "how being is made," but that 
its true object is to form a conception which harmonizes 
and unifies the facts of being, we may get on with this 
question of absolute and relative modes of consciousness 
in God. It is not our task to show how they subsist, but 
to keep our thoughts clear of contradictions and weak- 
ness while we recognize the fact that they do subsist. 

The positions of all systems of thought, ancient and 
modern, which have failed here have taken for granted 
that such contradiction is unavoidable. Their position 
is substantially this: The consciousness of relation, in 
God, must cancel his consciousness of absolute being. 
This is but a gratuitous assumption. They who hold to 
the doctrines of nescience must make good this assump- 
tion before they can rationally advance their theories. 

Relative consciousness, or consciousness of relation, is 
one's knowledge of being in relation to other things or 
thoughts. The absolute consciousness is that which can 
be and be known of itself without the existence of any 
thing or thought other than itself; independent of rela- 
tionship. Nothing can realize this latter definition except 
a force which is perfectly conscious of itself as perfectly 
self-determined reality. Hence, the absolute one is the 
only consciously and perfectly self-determined unit. It 
is unnecessary and absurd to think that this unit must 
forfeit or abate his consciousness of his own nature be- 
cause of any conceptions which he may have of any or all 
other modes of being. 

Further, he must be thought less than perfect if he is 
not conscious of every possibility and implication of 



BEING, AS CONDITIONED 87 

thought or act, or of every significance and minutia of 
a theory of his ozvn being. This is the same as saying 
that he must be less than independent if he cannot be 
conscious of a perfect relative conception ; and he must be 
thought less than perfect being if he cannot be conscious 
of such theory or conception without losing consciousness 
of himself as the perfectly self-determined unit. Then, 
what ground is there for saying that if he act objectively, 
project a universe, for example, in accordance with this 
conception, he can no longer be thought as existing in all 
perfection, independent of all objective action, condition, 
or relation? His objective action cannot be thought to 
exist without him, but he must be thought as perfect 
being, independent of its existence. In a word, he cannot 
be thought to exist in external activities except as depend- 
ent upon internal perfection. This internal, or egoistic, 
perfection is realized in absolute self-consciousness. All 
comes to this : He is absolutely self-determined ; hence, 
in our thought, his nature abides consciously absolute, 
and as independent of all external action which, however 
vast, he may choose to put forth. 

VIII. God's determination of relative consciousness in 
himself appears in his freedom to form a relative con- 
ception, and thus consciously differentiate thought and 
thing. We emphasize the above statement as a founda- 
tion stone of our system for the reason that this differ- 
entiation is logically, as we must see, the true "begin- 
ning," the origin of duality and relational order. 

Is it not clear to our reason that the absolute unit, the 
perfectly independent person, who in infinite freedom 
determines his own nature, is also free to form a con- 
ception of relation? If he cannot, he cannot be thought 
capable of any mode of knowledge except self-conscious- 
ness, and this only as he acts it in the one mode of action, 



88 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

the absolute. This would be an infinite freedom which is 
under a finite necessity to think or do^ nothing less than 
infinite things. That is, he is shut up to a necessity — 
is neither independent nor infinite. 

The ruling fallacy of this whole matter is in thinking 
of God's nature as being subject to modification by his 
objective thought or act, and thus dependent upon these 
in the same sense in which our dependent nature is gradu- 
ally developed and modified by interaction with external 
forces — a veritable anthropomorphism. But the only 
clear thought of his nature is that it is absolutely self- 
determined, and this nature is self-conscious in positing 
any thought or action which he wholly determines, and 
which is wholly dependent upon him. It is a degrading 
anthropomorphism to suppose that he cannot even con- 
ceive of aught less than himself without modifying his 
absolutely self-determined nature, as human thoughts and 
doings modify human character. But the one is inde- 
pendent being, the other is dependent becoming. 

Can the being who is a perfect person conceive of any 
other than perfect action? Only an affirmative to this 
question is thinkable. Yet this answer decides the entire 
question of conditioned being ; for, the moment we recog- 
nize that the being who is the unit of act and thought con- 
ceives that which is other than absolute self-determination 
we thereby accept the fact that he is conscious of dis- 
tinguishing this conception from the action which may 
give it determination. If we clearly recognize this we 
can easily see that he is able to view thought and act 
severally, as concept and content, ideal and reality, and 
related to each other as such. In a word, God, the self- 
conscious unit of act and thought, may be regarded as 
also conscious of thought and act as dual, separate, and 
correlated. 



BEING, AS CONDITIONED 89 

And since in his perfect nature there is perfect altruis- 
tic freedom, he may be thought as conceiving a perfect 
altruistic scheme. Such a scheme is a conception of an 
objective universe, and implies a universe of dependent 
persons who shall be objects of his action and beneficiaries 
of his altruism. Their personality, however, implies that, 
within conditions, they shall be self-determining ; and this 
is the same as to say that his conception of a universe is 
a scheme of thought which, in part, depends upon others 
to make it an actual thing. 

This differentiation of thought and its actualization is 
consciousness of form, as distinguished from the action 
which shall determine it, and consciousness of their rela- 
tion each to the other. It implies consciousness of the 
relative, the limited, the conditioned ; a relative conscious- 
ness. There is nothing in the nature of human reason to 
prevent our affirming that God, as the absolute unit, deter- 
mines in himself the consciousness of distinction and 
relation between thought and thing. 

The determined relative consciousness is a dependent 
result. Hence, the relative consciousness in God is deter- 
mined by his independent, perfect action, love. This is 
the initiative of relation and plurality; logically the true 
beginning, or founding, of conditioned existence. It is 
also the origin of limitation, or quantity, and the starting- 
point of succession. 

This determination of a dependent mode of conscious- 
ness in God implies that he may, in his infinite freedom, 
determine in himself many distinct modes of conscious- 
ness, all consciously dependent ; yet in his absolute nature 
he is self-conscious as the independent founder of all. 

The two modes of consciousness, the absolute and the 
relative, stand boldly out to our reason because of our 
unavoidable recognition of ( 1 ) the absolute nature of the 



po IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

independent self-determination of God, and (2) his deter- 
mination of his relative consciousness, implied in his con- 
ception of relationship— the absolute self-consciousness 
not conditioned by or dependent upon the relative, but 
abiding in its distinct mode of being. The relative is 
posited by and dependent upon the absolute. It is the 
child of the independent, "the begotten of the Father"; 
and, so far as we can know or think, "the only begotten." 
IX. In the order of God's relative consciousness is the 
going forth of his objective action. Hence, the creation 
of an objective universe must be thought as the action of 
God according to his relative consciousness — the action 
of "the only begotten." 

1. We must think of the independent as at once uncon- 
ditioned and yet free to be ever in process of relative self- 
determination. The consciousness of this relative self- 
determination we have designated "the begotten," the 
formal expression, "the Logos." Nor can we see any vio- 
lence to thought or language in designating this mode of 
conscious self-determination by the term "person." 

2. The relative consciousness in God is the nexus be- 
tween the infinite and the objective finite ; the bridge by 
which our thought passes out from the infinite unit to 
the finite many. To find this passage has been the grand 
effort and failure of philosophy in ancient and modern 
times. No triangulation of regressive thought has ever 
been able to span this chasm. 

3. The relative consciousness in God is the primus of 
serial being, the first in the order of succession, the pri- 
mary consciousness of conditioned being. It is the real 
beginning, the "Word" that was "with God" and "was 
God." "The same was in the beginning with God. All 
things were made by him ; and without him was not any- 
thing made that was made." 



BEING, AS CONDITIONED 91 

4. But we find this the logical beginning, simply, not 
attempting to assign it a chronological date. We can 
assign no period when the Absolute One refrained from 
objective action. But we must, nevertheless, think of his 
conception of relation and conditions as dependent 
though eternal; and therefore the relative consciousness 
must be thought as only logically subsequent to and de- 
pendent upon the absolute. 

Perhaps a more difficult question from our point of 
view is: Can love be thought as perfect action without 
altruistic determination; can love be complete without 
practical benevolence? This question, however, is 
answered in a former chapter substantially as follows: 
Love, or supreme devotement to perfection, is complete 
whether as self-love it realizes perfection, independently, 
or as benevolence, indirectly. The difficulty which attends 
the effort is to see this is a certain anthropomorphism 
which regards love as not complete unless it is lavished 
upon some object. Because men need an object to love, 
as an instrument through which to realize their ideal, and 
thus experience their highest self-determination, purged 
of selfishness, we are apt to regard God as in need of a 
similar process by which to realize his own perfection. 
In man the same need of objects is experienced in every 
department of self-realization, physical, emotional, men- 
tal, and moral; but the independent needs no indirect 
or related method by which to realize perfection in him- 
self. Love is complete as devoted realization of the per- 
fect, whether that realization be wrought directly or in- 
directly, with or without instrumentality. Perfection in 
God must be thought as directly self-determined, while 
man's perfection is determined by his devotement to an 
object which represents this perfection. Infinite love 
realizes the infinite ideal in itself. If the independent 



92 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

being choose to form a conception of a perfect system of 
dependent being, that conception must be thought as 
dependent upon him and conditioned by him ; it is a con- 
ditioned conception, while his nature is unconditioned. 
Perfectly self-determined being must be thought as per- 
fectly unconditioned love ; and must be thought such be- 
fore he can be thought capable of perfect altruism,. If 
we but bear in mind that love is purely self-determining 
action we cannot fail to see that its highest mode is sub^ 
jective, egoistic. And if we strictly adhere to this pure 
notion of love, the supreme devotement of perfect self- 
determination, we shall have no difficulty in seeing that 
in an independent being it must realize perfect self-deter- 
mination without need of objective instrumentality. 

Perfect self-determination must be thought absolute in 
knowledge and power; hence, can actualize perfection 
directly, not conditioned by time, space, or means. It 
is not dependent upon objects of love as indirect means 
of realizing- perfection. Dependent persons, such as we 
are, must be led to apprehend our ideal self and actualize 
it in our highest determination of character by means 
of altruistic methods. "We must lose our lives that we 
may find them." All our love for others reacts to> achieve 
our best selves, and thus proves to be pure self-love purged 
of selfishness. And this pure self-love, which is the best 
possible for ourselves, is realized by our being the best 
possible for others. This exhibits the subjective oneness 
of love and self-love — exhibits the unselfish freedom of 
a perfect self-love, pure altruism. 

But as the independent self-love of God is directly self- 
determined, it is independently the best for himself, and 
independently capable of being the best for a dependent 
universe. Hence, it is clear that altruistic determination 
in an objective creation has nothing to do with, develop- 



BEING, AS CONDITIONED 93 

nig love as the nature of God — is not a necessity nor a 
condition to God's egoistic perfection. But, on the con- 
trary, his perfect being in its independent altruistic free- 
dom is the condition and opportunity which account for 
the objective nature of the universe; account for the uni- 
verse as other than God. Love, the only thinkable nature 
of an unconditioned being, affords, in its perfect altruis- 
tic freedom, the only thinkable condition which is ade- 
quate to the projectment of objective being. Here we 
shake off the last shred of pantheistic philosophy, Hindoo, 
Greek, and German. 

Pantheism is but a confession of inability to think one's 
way out from infinite to finite being ; and hence surrenders 
the solution of finite being and stultifies the individual 
self-consciousness of man. Whether as a theory that the 
universe is God, or God is the universe, or that God and 
the universe are necessarily coexisting phases of being, 
it cannot be held without contradiction. According to 
pantheism there is either no independent or no dependent 
being. Its teachers have failed to recognize unconditioned 
being as perfect action, failed to see that perfect action 
is perfectly devoted self-realization, failed to> recognize 
this as infinite self-love, and failed to see that infinite self- 
love has infinite altruistic freedom; is infinite love and 
implies the infinite freedom of perfect unselfishness. They 
have made their failures by regarding the universe as 
in some way necessitated; regarding the infinite as in 
some way impelled or driven to methods of phenomena 
to attain self-consciousness. They have dragged the infi- 
nite into finite conditions, yet have accounted for noth- 
ing; or, like Fichte, have concluded that being is but a 
dream and human knowledge "but the dream of a 
dream." 

The first thing to account for is the fact of finite being, 



94 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

the individual self-perception of man, not the reason why 
man or the universe exists, but the condition upon which 
they can exist. We find this condition to be the perfect 
altruistic freedom of that independent self-love which is 
the nature of God; a freedom which neither abridges, 
impels, nor determines, but illustrates infinite self-love, 
the unconditioned nature of an ego whose perfection is 
not susceptible to impairment through endless altruistic 
determination. We find in this unconditioned love no 
necessity nor compulsion to altruistic benevolence. Com- 
pulsion would cancel benevolence. We find nothing in 
God's objective action that is a condition to his perfect 
self-determination. We find, simply, an infinite love 
which needs no indirect methods by which to achieve per- 
fect self-determination as man needs, but which in its 
direct, unrelated, independent realization of perfect being 
is perfection for himself, and is, hence, capable of perfect 
beneficence to others; and this love is identical, in its 
egoistic independence, with perfect self-love, the self-sus- 
tained egoism which is adequate to endless altruism. This 
is perfect altruistic freedom, as implied in infinite egoistic 
love. 

We have said that a perfect, that is, a perfectly free, 
altruism is, to our thought, the highest exponent of egois- 
tic perfection. But this does not imply that egoistic per- 
fection is determined by means of it; but it does imply 
that egoistic perfection is self-sufficient, self-secure, infin- 
itely free to determine love's altruistic benefaction, with- 
out subjective reserve, forever. Thus love appears to our 
thought as determining a higher and a lower life — the 
higher life of independent being, the lower life of finite 
self-determination in relation to dependent being. The 
higher is the perfection of unconditioned, the lower is the 
perfection of conditioned, consciousness. 



BEING, AS CONDITIONED 95 

Then let it be steadily held in view that the grand de- 
mand upon our system of philosophy is to account for 
our personal existence; and that this fact is accounted 
for in finding in independent self-love the freedom to 
create or not create; and in either case to be self-deter- 
mined perfection in himself. The perceived fact of our 
dependent existence evinces that he chooses to create; 
his freedom so to choose offers a full account of our exist- 
ence — a full account of "being, as conditioned." 

The reason why he chooses to create dependent being 
is not concerned in this question, nor in any way needed 
that we may see the coexistence of conditioned with un- 
conditioned action in God, or the coexistence of con- 
ditioned beings with the unconditioned One. "The reason 
why" concerns the intention, or meaning, of our existence, 
but not the fact. Doubtless, pantheistic theories are 
prompted from supposing that dependent being must be 
accounted for by showing some necessity for it, and hence 
place that necessity in a necessitated unit which may be 
termed either God or universe, and of which dependent 
beings are but temporary phenomena. Thus self-con- 
scious, dependent beings, which is the grand problem to 
be solved, is not solved, but ignored. 

Now that we see in self-love's perfect self-determina- 
tion the freedom of the unconditioned ego to determine 
an objective system of being, in harmony with that love, 
we might offer the implied reason why he chooses so to 
do. But we defer this to the discussion of "Implications 
of Love," Part Second. 

X. The Altruistic Spirit. It is impossible for us to 
think of that Person who is immutably perfect — perfect 
for the infinite good and pleasure of his own being, and 
perfect to afford the highest good of other possible beings 
— without our recognizing in him the spontaneity, dispo- 



96 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

sition, or spirit, of infinite benevolence ; a spirit prompting 
him to determine objective conditions upon which may- 
arise any and all forms of being that may realize a benefi- 
cent existence. 

But to be more explicit : We have seen that love, the 
nature of God, is supreme devotement to perfection of 
being. Take this with its realization of perfect freedom 
to limitless altruistic determination, and the fact stands 
out to our view that his nature, love, is devotement to all 
being in which it may realize an ideal. Hence, we must 
recognize in love a tendency or disposition to such action 
as can realize an ideal objective life — indeed, an objective 
life which may comprehend all ideals which may contrib- 
ute to the realization of perfect objective being. This 
tendency or disposition is one sense in which the word 
"spirit" is used; it is a synthetic expression of all the 
several subjective qualities, as the flame leaps up blending 
the various elements of combustion in one towering pillar 
of fire. 

The term "spirit" is used in at least two different 
senses : First, it means self-determining in which the con- 
sciousness of personality resides. The term has this 
sense in the sentence, "God is a Spirit." Secondly, the 
term "spirit" represents the general sentiment or expres- 
sion of the character of a person ; or the disposition, ten- 
dency, or spontaneity which, as a whole, expresses his 
nature. This is the general outflow, or spontaneity, in 
Avhich every trait of the nature and character is repre- 
sented, not in severalty, but as a whole. 

Therefore, since love is devotion to perfection of being, 
and experiences the practical good of love-determined 
being, and enjoys perfect freedom to all altruistic tend- 
ency, it follows that it has the general sentiment of devo- 
tion to the accomplishment of all possible forms of love- 



BEING, AS CONDITIONED 97 

determinable beings. Take the practical good which God 
knows there is in the satisfaction of love, and the practical 
good to other beings which love may secure in the realiza- 
tion of the several ideals which may be comprehended in 
an ideal objective life as a whole, and we have the benev- 
olent element in love's altruistic tendency. This altruis- 
tic tendency, or spontaneity, is the altruistic spirit in the 
second above-described sense of the term "spirit"; a 
benevolent sentiment, expression, or spontaneity flowing 
out from love, the divine nature. 

But this is only a spontaneity, not a determination 
unless it consciously prompts toward objective action. If 
it so prompt, instigate, it is then a form of self-conscious 
determination, a definite personality; an objectively self- 
directed energy; "the altruistic spirit" in the sense of a 
self-determined person. 

But now, if we think of this altruistic spirit as an inten- 
tionally exercised determination or prompting- toward 
objective exploitation, we must discriminate it as the rise 
of a definite form of consciousness, determined by the 
independent one, and distinguished by at least two well- 
defined characteristics. These are (1) conscious senti- 
ment for, and contemplation of, an objective life; and 
hence, because related to an object, must be distinguished 
from the absolute consciousness of the perfectly self- 
determined one. (2) Self -consciousness as a concrete 
prompting or urging sentiment; hence, because concrete 
and informal, it is distinct, in thought, from any formal 
consciousness, as, for example, that of the Logos, the 
Son. We cannot escape the affirmation that a definite 
prompting of the divine nature toward objective action — 
action which shall be related to possible or real objects — 
is a consciously related prompting, and is consciously 
other than love's prompting in subjective self-determina- 



98 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

tion; the former is relative, the latter absolute. And 
equally unavoidable is it that this definite prompting, 
yearning sentiment, becoming self-conscious in the spon- 
taneity of the divine nature and instigating to an objec- 
tive demonstration, is informal and is, therefore, dis- 
tinct from the formal consciousness which has been 
termed the Logos, or Son. These characteristics cannot, 
in clear thinking, be affirmed of the absolute, on the one 
hand, nor of the son, on the other ; hence, reason requires 
the recognition of the personal consciousness of the altru- 
istic Spirit. 

If, according to the prompting of this spirit, God actu- 
ally creates dependent objects, then, we must think, the 
altruistic spirit is definitely self-conscious in all his objec- 
tive action — self-conscious in love, prompting and urging 
its fullest objective development. 

This prompting to objective being has in it, of course, 
love's devotion to perfection, love's enthusiasm for actual- 
izing the ideal. Hence, it is the prompting of intentional 
perfection, albeit of conditioned perfection. It is the in- 
tent to realize a perfect objective life. And since the holy 
is one with perfectness of intention, or intended perfect- 
ness, its prompting is wholly to perfectness in all objective 
action. Although the working-out of love's ideal objective 
life may involve a vast amount of weakness, defeat, 
delay or opposition to its perfect determination, the spirit 
which prompts to it must be thought true to the ideal, 
in its intent, throughout all the vicissitudes of the realiz- 
ing process. Hence, the altruistic spirit is distinctively 
a holy spirit. Although the objective, conditioned system 
of being may involve much of imperfection before its per- 
fection is attained, the spirit which urges it is holy so 
long as it does not demand or approve a departure from 
righteousness or the infliction of essential ill upon any 



BEING, AS CONDITIONED 99 

being in order to condition the ultimate success. We have 
seen in the preceding chapter that intending, or purpos- 
ing, the perfect is the holy in God, and intending a best 
or true self is holiness in a finite person ; hence, we can 
readily see that the Spirit of God which prompts to the 
conditioned perfection of God's objective action is aptly 
termed the "Holy Spirit." 

We discern, then, in our discrimination of the altruistic 
spirit of love, that his prompting will be an authoritative 
sentiment at every point in conditioned being where self- 
determining intention shall arise — an authoritative senti- 
ment urging to intentional devotion to the realization of 
the ideal, the true life. This sentiment of holy intention 
must abide as a moral condition to every intention, divine 
or human, which bears upon the determination of per- 
sonal character or the attainment of essential good. 

Whether, then, we think of God's objective action as 
creating and arranging primal chaos, or adjusting the 
conditions of the nicest shades of human responsibility, 
or witnessing his acceptance of human faith and fealty, 
there must be thought the self-determined presence of the 
altruistic spirit, urging holy intention in all conditioned 
being. 

The conclusion to which this matter comes is that we 
identify the "moral imperative" in man, termed the au- 
thority of conscience, with the authoritative sentiment 
of the altruistic or holy spirit which in God's infinite 
nature prompts to objective holiness and benevolence, and 
is self-evident as the moral authority which conditions 
man's conscious intentions. Since he does not determine 
formal thought or action in man or in the objective uni- 
verse, we must think of him as an animus, spirit; and 
as he does not necessitate obedience, but merely imposes 
a moral sentiment as a condition of approval or disap- 



ioo IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

proval of intentions, he is purely moral in his prompting. 

The determination of altruism is necessary to give it 
objective reality. Without such determination divine 
altruism must be thought as simply comprising an infinite 
altruistic freedom and the altruistic spirit. It is nothing 
more than the occasion for objective action unless God 
shall choose to realize it in objective fact. Thus there 
is involved in love the original possibility of objective 
reality. And, upon further consideration, we may see 
that it implies motive to the creation of real objects. But 
since it is clear that we need not think the self-determined 
nature of the perfect being is changed or affected by his 
conceiving or founding objects, we must regard God as 
at once unconditioned and yet free to be ever in process 
of relative self-determination. 

Pantheism cannot realize altruism. A universe which 
is not objective to the power which projects it is not a 
universe, but an ego; does not realize objective realities. 
Love, which realizes perfect being in God and hence can 
afford unrestrained altruistic action, implies in that action 
objects of its benevolence which shall be consciously other 
than the unconditioned being — objects toward which, also, 
the Unconditioned shall realize that he establishes, or 
posits, them as external to himself. This is his condition- 
ing of externality. 

A point in God's action where he erects conditions from 
which may arise a spontaneous self-conscious act, other 
than God's act, is a realization of externality ; and is action 
which must be thought as objective to God. That self- 
conscious external action gives individual unity to the 
group of conditions upon which it has arisen. This 
actor, or agent, who shall thus act originally — that is, 
for himself — consciously choosing to do or be this or 
that, or in any way originating change in and of himself, 



BEING, AS CONDITIONED 101 

becomes thereby conscious of himself as a being other 
than God; and God is thereupon conscious of a person 
external to himself. 

This new self-conscious being may not be definitely 
conscious of God's conditioning action which constitutes 
his nature, nor apprehend how his own power to act for 
himself arises, but he is conscious of acting for himself. 
This definitely self-conscious agent, who, though depend- 
ent, is conscious of selfhood as an individual actor, self- 
determining in his conditions, is a real object, external 
to God, which meets the demand of divine altruism. In 
him divine love realizes actual altruism. Love's benev- 
olence finds a real object and, acting in relation to him, 
is consciously beneficent. It is only a universe of such 
self-conscious though dependent beings that can be such 
a universe as the free altruism of God implies. 

Although we might suppose the existence in the mind 
of God of a concept of a perfect universe, this concept 
could not be the determination of altruism until such con- 
cept became an objective reality; until a person or per- 
sons, definitely other than himself, were established. This 
otherness must consist in a definite though dependent 
ego — a real being who is a self-conscious actor. He may 
be conscious of action which is not his own, and yet con- 
scious of his own self-originated action ; and also that it 
is the one same consciousness which distinguishes the ac- 
tion which is self originated from that which is not his 
own. I am conscious of charming sensations of sight 
and sound which arise in me by no choice or act which 
I exert ; but I can avoid their charm by choosing to divert 
my attention from them, and thus, by my own act, con- 
sciously ignore them. Not only do* I distinguish self- 
originated action from action posited within me, but I 
abide the same individual, perceiving and purposing and 



102 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

remembering past perceptions and purposes. This finite 
ego, my self -perceived being, is conditioned, rendered pos- 
sible, by that class of action termed above "not my own." 
It is action which is established by a power other than 
myself. It is my nature ; but in the action which I origi- 
nate I am self-conscious and free, appropriating and 
modifying my nature, building upon it or of it my self- 
determined personality. 

It is of no consequence to ask how original action 
arises spontaneously upon certain posited conditions, or 
how the passage from spontaneous to self-determining 
action is made ; for that is but to ask how being comes 
to be — a question which is impenetrable to human 
thought, and, besides, has no weight as against the per- 
ceived facts of spontaneous action all around us and self- 
determination within us, arising upon posited conditions. 

God's objective action is conditioned action; con- 
ditioned by him as the subject who acts toward an object, 
and also conditioned by the object of his action; thus 
establishing the relation between subject and object. His 
relative consciousness founds succession, and is, logically, 
the beginning point of successive events. Hence divine 
love, when devoted to others, can be realized as con- 
ditioned. Until altruism is so realized it can be thought 
only as the altruistic spirit. Only by objective action can 
it find determination. Without this it is benevolence that 
is not beneficent. For an objective universe there is ample 
scope in the altruistic freedom of divine love; but its 
determination must always imply conditioned action. God 
must be conscious of acting under conditions when he 
acts with reference to a proposed object ; and, hence, must 
be thought as acting according to his self-determined 
relative consciousness. 

It is clear to our thought, then, that love, which is the 



BEING, AS CONDITIONED 103 

divine nature, and is perfectly self-conscious as infinite 
egoism, expresses itself externally in restless, boundless 
activity; and this objective activity, with all its objects 
and conditions, is the universe. 

The endless process of the universe is implied in its 
existence. All theories which suppose a cyclical return 
of the relative to the absolute, of the finite to the infinite, 
in the sense of suspension or of completed end of finite 
being as a whole, imply a limit or exhaustion of the infi- 
nite beyond which he cannot condition dependent being. 
Of course, such implied limitation is contradictory and 
absurd. But because no such exhaustion can be thought 
we must think of conditioned being, as a whole, as an 
endless development. 

We positively affirm God's objective action, that is, we 
affirm the fact that God has acted in establishing objects 
external to himself, upon the ground of human conscious- 
ness alone. For aught we can positively know, all other 
world-phenomena may be part of his subjective action. 
In forming such a conception of the independent being 
as our thought requires we do not find anything which 
we can positively know to be external to God except our- 
self, whom we perceive as a conscious individual power. 
By inference from our own conscious unity we may and 
do conclude that all objects which manifest themselves 
after our manner, or order, in any degree — things, men, 
or animals — are, like ourselves, individual beings. 
Further, we think of the material world as being a part 
of God's objective action because we observe it as con- 
ditioned. Possibly there is in us an instinctive conviction 
that our perception of external objects is more real and 
valid than any existing philosophy of perception has defi- 
nitely established. Certainly the last word has not been 
said on that subject. But in the knowledge of our own 



104 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

definite unity and free action we have, firmly fixed, the 
fact of objective being, objective to God. This fact pre- 
vents our thought from finding rest in any form of pan- 
theism. 

How much of what we term the universe is God's 
objective action it is impossible for us to decide. Where 
the line should be drawn which distinguishes the divine 
ego from the universe it *is not ours now to know ; for 
the reason that we have direct perception of no other 
being but our individual self. It is true that by sense- 
perception we perceive the earth, the heavens, clouds, 
continents, and oceans; the seasons with their snows and 
verdure, their flowers, foliage, and fruits; the animals, 
great and small; the sounds and songs of nature; the 
human family with all its busy activities, its signs of joy, 
suffering, ambition, disappointment, achievement, and 
quenchless longing. But it is by inference we decide 
that these are real objects; and that inference is based 
upon our individual consciousness. 

When I perceive objects which reveal to my experience 
and reason that they are self-determining, like myself, I 
am convinced they are persons. Upon such conviction 
we treat each other as free, responsible beings. Hence, 
the responsible qualities which distinguish persons main- 
tain relationship through the whole family of man, and 
develop all forms of government and law. Though this 
reasoning is valid in all practical affairs, yet in deciding 
what may be directly known we must be guided by the 
facts of which we are directly conscious. Confined to 
these we can, at least, affirm our individual being, depend- 
ence, and free action — in a word, our individual per- 
sonality. 

This selfhood is the first fact which we directly know 
as objective, or external, to God. We know it as objective 



BEING, AS CONDITIONED 105 

to God because of our consciousness of perceiving, choos- 
ing, purposing, willing. 

"Natural law" can be thought as only the observed order 
in which God acts. It can give us no insight as to where 
that action in the world passes from subject to object, or 
w r hether it is subjective or totally objective. Natural law 
is simply a recognition that there is about us an actor, 
not ourselves, who observes a regular order in his action, 
observes harmony everywhere. Relative order is relative 
truth ; and love is the content which determines the form 
of relative truth. This form of truth, or order, is not 
imposed upon, nor accepted by, love; nor is it made in 
an arbitrary sense which implies it might have been made 
differently. But it is a conception which love determines 
as its formal expression. Let it be steadily borne in mind 
that the nature of perfect being is perfect action, and that 
perfect action is love ; and that such a being, when acting 
with reference to an object, acts in the relation of subject 
to object; and, hence, the relations established by his 
objective action must be the forms of love's objective 
expression. Relations are what they are, natural order 
is what it is, and relative truth is what it is because love 
is love. 

The harmony of relative being within itself, and its 
harmony with the absolute being, has its ground in the 
initial harmony of absolute and relative consciousness in 
love, the nature of God. Harmony of relations implies 
the possible harmony of beings who exist in relation to 
each other. Relations are harmonious as they accord 
with the relative consciousness of God ; and their absolute 
basis of harmony is in the compatibility of his relative 
with his absolute consciousness. This must be thought 
for the reason that love is the one determining action in 
God's egoistic and altruistic determination. 



io6 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

Thus love appears as the nature of that ultimate unit 
in which alone thought can find the basis of an harmoni- 
ous, and possibly successful, universe. It is that action 
in the universe which is self-sustaining and self-harmoniz- 
ing in all forms, complexities, and extensions forever. It 
is this alone which can assure the philosopher's claim 
that "truth is a unit," or justify the saying, "There is in 
history a force, not ourselves, which makes for righteous- 
ness," or inspire the poet to sing : 

Truth crushed to earth shall rise again, — 
The eternal years of God are hers. 

Disharmony may arise in conditioned being only at the 
point where dependent beings are free to originate action. 
Material things, which never break the harmony of natu- 
ral order, must be referred to the action of God. All that 
we can affirm of them is that they must be thought by us 
as points or groups of points at which his action is per- 
ceptible to our senses. Hence, in all contact with the 
world and with our own nature, our conscious action must 
be thought as in interaction with him. Around and in us 
at every point are his conscious activities surrounding 
and filling us with ceaseless changes, yet transcending all 
change with immanent harmony. Our action must inter- 
act with him or react against him ; acting upon his action, 
and thus, as we purpose, perverting it or building into 
it. To the extent that our action intimately articulates 
with his we determine our progress and realize his con- 
cept, or ideal, of our being. Failure to so interact must 
be to antagonize our conditions, pervert our nature, and 
defeat his plan in us. Thus we are free in this conditioned 
self-determination. 

Inferior beings may exist solely for the purpose of 
affording conditions to the development of superior 
classes of being, as vegetables afford conditions for the 



BEING, AS CONDITIONED 107 

development of animals, and certain classes of animals 
condition the development of others; and any or all of 
these, again, furnish conditions for the life and develop- 
ment of persons. All the vast scheme of sensitive nature 
may thus be concerned in conditioning the maturing 
splendors of the personal universe; and wholly, too, in 
accord with love, provided the degree of good realized 
by these inferior creatures compensates them for the suf- 
fering incident to their being. Our position that the uni- 
verse is a product of love implies this compensation. 
Besides, there is nothing in our knowledge of the lower 
animals to show that they do not derive this compensa- 
tion. But there is much to show that they do; which 
might here be adduced if it pertained to our line of in- 
quiry. The "slaughter-house" argument of atheists, in 
which they dwell with so much sentiment upon the feed- 
ing of man upon animals, and animals upon each other, 
has no significance until this question of compensations 
is settled in their favor. That the lower animals suffer 
agonies in the process of their contributing to the life of 
others we do not question. But that the pleasures of their 
being far outweigh these agonies is not only altogether 
probable, as fact, but is a necessary inference from love's 
demands. And love's demands are affirmed upon higher 
and firmer grounds than any cosmic argument can offer. 
The main factors which dominate all the questions of 
being, as conditioned, are those two which establish it 
as a fact, namely, the nature of God, and the personal 
determination of finite beings. 

XL Conditioning and determining make up the whole 
of related action — the grand summary of "being, as con- 
ditioned." They are the two functions of all action in 
which the sovereignty of God and the personal freedom 
of dependent beings are conserved and harmonized. Fail- 



108 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

ure to observe this discrimination has been at the bottom 
of the theological worry of centuries over the supposed 
inconsistency of the "sovereignty of God" and the "free- 
dom of the human will." But bearing in mind that objec- 
tive action is necessarily and always conditioned, and that 
the evolution of divine love is the conditioning process 
which underlies the development and self-determining 
of a finite, personal universe, there is no need to suppose 
that God must in any instance override the personal free- 
dom of dependent beings in order to be thought "al- 
mighty," or able to achieve the evolution of love. More- 
over, the divine altruism, seeking the highest perfection 
of dependent beings, must find its highest determination 
in conditioning the largest freedom possible to their 
dependent nature. Divine interference with their per- 
sonal self-determination would be the defeat of altruism, 
and a confession of its failure to achieve a successful uni- 
verse. 

The true scope of divine sovereignty and its glorious 
success are in affording conditions upon which the per- 
fection of a personal universe shall be self-determined. 
The affording these conditions is the evolution of divine 
love; a grander sweep of divine power than the compul- 
sion or annihilation of a universe. The determination of 
their own destiny in the midst of these conditions is the 
sphere, the responsibility, and the glory of finite persons. 

These determinations may, indeed, modify, distort, per- 
vert the conditions which love provides; hence, its infi- 
nite altruistic freedom must afford further and ampler 
conditions upon which such perversions may be survived 
and corrected. Thus, while he posits conditions which 
finite persons may modify, God must find himself unfa- 
vorably conditioned in his effort to realize his altruistic 
purpose. But these unfavorable conditions but afford 



BEING, AS CONDITIONED 109 

occasion for surmounting them; not by overriding the 
personal freedom of finite persons, but by evolving further 
and wider conditions upon which they may remedy past 
abuses. 

Such has been the history of our planet and race. Such 
is the only view, clear to thought, which accounts for the 
long continuance of mixed good and ill. Such is the sug- 
gestion of "the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and 
the knowledge of God." 

To sum up: From the two facts of being which we 
positively know, namely, being and dependence, we have 
been compelled to recognize : 

1. An independent Force, perfectly self-determined; 
hence, an infinite Ego, a perfect Person. 

2. That as Perfect Force, Perfect Action, conscious 
and infinitely free, he is the highest generalization, the 
Primary Unit, the unconditioned nature of independent 
being. 

3. Perfect action is perfectly intentional. 

4. The nature of perfect action is unconditioned self- 
love, realizing a perfect Ego ; that is, actualizing the infi- 
nite ideal as the self-consciousness of the perfect Person. 

5. Independent self-love, by realizing perfect egoism, 
founds perfect, that is, limitless, altruism; is capable of 
perfect altruistic freedom; hence, is capable of perpetual 
objective beneficence; hence, is free to condition the rise 
of an objective universe. 

6. Self-love and love are objectively the same. 

7. Love realizes all those characteristics and qualities 
which must be thought involved in independent action, 
namely : absolute truth, the supreme good, the holy, and 
intrinsic beauty. 

8. Moral authority has its original ground in God's 
intentionally actualizing love's infinite ideal. 



no IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

9. In infinite love there is not only altruistic free- 
dom, but the altruistic spirit which must be thought as 
a self-conscious prompting, or yearning, in the infinite 
ego; a definitely self-determined force, or mode of con- 
sciousness, which prompts to the determination of altruis- 
tic being. And, since it is a prompting to< the realization 
of an ideal, or perfect altruistic life, it discriminates and 
determines the holy intent of altruistic love; hence, he 
is a holy spirit. 

10. The determination or actualization of altruism! is 
the evolution of love, the realization of an objective per- 
sonal universe. 

11. Of an objective universe we cannot form a con- 
ception which we can surely know as objective except 
it be a personal universe, a universe of persons external 
or objective to God. Of these persons we must think they 
are self-determining, within conditions of dependence; 
which implies that the Creator forms a conception of 
their being and forms the conditions of its rise, leaving 
the actualization of such conception to the self-determina- 
tion of these conditioned beings themselves. 

12. This conception in the divine mind implies the 
differentiation or dividing of thought and thing, of ideal 
and its realization, and establishing their relations to 
each other ; hence, it evinces consciousness in God of con- 
ditions and relations, a relative consciousness, the initial 
of successive being, the formal, the logical discrimination 
of being— "the Word," "the Begotten of the Father." 

13. God's determination of relative consciousness in 
himself appears in his freedom to form a relative con- 
ception, and thus consciously differentiate thought and 
thing. 

14. In the order of God's relative consciousness is the 
going forth of his objective activities; all evolution. 



BEING, AS CONDITIONED in 

Hence, "the Creator" is God acting according to his 
conception of rational relations; hence, his logical, 
formal, or "begotten" consciousness, "the Son." 

15. Conditioning and determining make up the whole 
of related action — the grand summary of "being, as con- 
ditioned." The process of love's evolution establishes 
the conditions upon which dependent beings spontane- 
ously and gradually enact self-determination and conse- 
quent personal identity, as dependent, or conditioned, 
persons. The entire universe is conditioned by love, 
although the relationship of many classes of beings may 
be but to condition the determination of other classes. 

16. Dependent persons are beings who are consciously 
free in their intentions and in the use which they make 
of their conditions; hence, within their conditions, are 
self-determining. 

17. Capable of intentional self-determination, they are 
able to determine themselves as either in harmony or dis- 
harmony with their conditions, able to use or abuse them, 
and thus realize the intention of divine altruism or per- 
vert its auspices. 

18. Freedom of intention, in human beings, is con- 
ditioned by a sense of moral authority, termed conscience, 
or the "moral law," or "moral imperative," which, though 
it may be neglected, cannot be corrupted as can other con- 
ditions. It is an independent and authoritative senti- 
ment which imposes the obligation of moral purity upon 
human intentions wherein those intentions pertain to self- 
determinations, and imposes altruistic righteousness and 
benevolence wherein our intentions relate to other beings. 
It is independent in that it cannot be corrupted or per- 
verted. It is authoritative in that it imposes the authority 
of the ideal upon the actual. It is wholly moral in that 
its prompting, though insistent, is never compulsory. It 



ii2 IMPLICATIONS OF BEING 

is altruistic in that it urges justice and benevolence to- 
ward others. It is practical in that personal innocence, 
if obeyed, guilt if disobeyed, result from its moral behest. 
It is holy in that it prompts to perfect intention. It is at 
one with the altruistic spirit in God in that it prompts to 
holiness, justice, and benevolence of intention in all self- 
determining and objective action. It is identical with 
the "Holy Spirit" in that harmony with its prompting 
implies the determination of perfect altruism, the per- 
fection of the personal universe. 

19. Thus the independent, altruistic spirit which 
prompts to practical altruism in a perfect universe main- 
tains the conditions to harmony of intention, leading to 
harmonious self-determination in all persons by disclos- 
ing the divine intent of their being. 

20. The universe is a system of conditioning and deter- 
mining action — action of the Creator and dependent 
beings in relation to each other, objectively conditioning 
each other — dependent persons subjectively determining 
themselves upon these conditions. Conditioning and de- 
termining construct objective being; and hence make up 
the warp and woof of human life, history, and destiny. 

21. The interaction of the Creator with dependent 
beings, and their interaction with him and each other, 
constitute what we have termed "being, as conditioned." 

22. Free self-determining being, or personality, per- 
sonally external to God, yet interacting with his action 
in nature and environment, affords a full account of all 
the facts of human consciousness and experience. 

23. The grand fact revealed to thought in these "impli- 
cations of being" is the evolution of love. The grand 
significance of man is his position as an exponent and 
beneficiary of that evolution. 

With this view of being we proceed to Part Second. 



PART SECOND 
IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 



There is a love unstained by selfishness, 
Th' outpouring tide of self-abandonment, 
That loves to love; and deems its preciousness 
Repaid in loving, though no sentiment 
Of love returned reward its sacrament; 
Nor stays to question what the loved one will, 
But hymns its overture, with blessings immanent; 
Rapt and sublimed by love's exalting thrill, 
Loves on, through frown or smile, divine, immortal 
still. 



CHAPTER I 
Creation 

The ideal, stable type of ever-moving progress. — Victor Hugo. 

In outlining the "implications of being" we have pro- 
ceeded from the perceived facts, being and dependence, 
to the recognition of love as the nature of that perfect 
action which is the independent ego. In this perfect ego 
we have found perfect altruistic freedom to objective 
activity. Hence, we have clear scope in which to trace 
the "implications of love" in its evolution. Such evolu- 
tion brings us to consider the natural world as a creation, 
and God, in the capacity of his conditioned conscious- 
ness, as Creator. 

That our thoughts at this point may be entirely clear 
to the reader we use the term "creation" in order that we 
may not seem to entertain the idea that the Creator 
wrought the universe from assumed preexisting matter. 
Nor do we take upon us to affirm anything of matter, 
substance, or reality further than to say it is force, or 
action, and what action unavoidably implies. Without 
possibility of doubt or gainsaying, action is real. This 
we can and must affirm. Hence, we affirm of substance 
that it is, at least, action — whether it is the action which 
merely exists or that which moves, is conscious, thinks, 
wills, feels. And all we affirm, or can affirm, of the 
nature of matter is that there are points and groups of 
points, greater or less, at which action, or force, is per- 
ceptible through our senses. 

The fact that we perceive persistence and a certain 
regularity, or fixed order, in these manifestations of force, 
"5 



n6 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

or action, leads us to regard them as being permanent. 
This permanent order of persistent action we term "na- 
ture," or the natural world. True, we may suppose or 
imagine or even assume many things of the substance, 
properties, and phenomena of nature, but there is one thing 
which we can and must affirm as positive fact, and that 
thing is action. The term "creation," therefore, can cer- 
tainly signify to our thought nothing more or less than 
those divine activities which consist as a system of con- 
ditions upon which spontaneous and self-determining 
actions — that is, objective beings — may and do arise. 
And because these divine activities are put forth with 
reference to, and for the purpose of, conditioning the 
spontaneous rise of self-determining beings, they are 
termed the objective action of God. 

These classes of beings which arise spontaneously upon 
the conditions which the Creator thus posits and main- 
tains constitute dependent being. They must be thought 
as objective to God in so far as they are without con- 
sciousness of God. If they are consciously self-determin- 
ing, as is man, they are consciously other than God. Al- 
though this self-determining action arises in a nature 
which consists of the Creator's action, it is not conscious 
of that nature further than it is conscious of using it. By 
its conscious use of that nature it appropriates and incor- 
porates it into the self-consciousness of its own being. 
The self-determination of a being who is thus free to use, 
select, modify, develop, repress, or pervert the elements 
of his nature is what constitutes dependent personality, 
or a finite person. 

A definite conception of creation, or the natural world, 
may be stated thus : 

i. Creation is a system of conditioned divine activities 
which constitute conditions upon which dependent beings 



CREATION 117 

may arise and may determine their perfection, and so 
determine a perfect universe. 

2. If the perfect universe is developed in essential 
harmony — that is, harmony of purpose, or intent — with 
the conditions posited in creation — notwithstanding the 
rise of errors and accidents — it is a natural universe, 
naturally developed. 

3. If essential, intentional disharmony arise, modifying 
natural conditions, the world becomes thereby preter- 
natural, that is, "aside from natural." 

4. If thereupon divine love evolve further or other con- 
ditions upon which the perfect universe may be achieved 
— notwithstanding the existence of essential disharmony 
— this evolution is supernatural. 

5. The line between the conditions posited in creation 
and those which may be added for recovery from essen- 
tial disharmony is the line which distinguishes the natural 
from the supernatural. Correction of errors and irregu- 
larities must be thought attainable upon natural con- 
ditions, but intentional, self-determined antagonism to 
love and its purpose in nature, perverting natural con- 
ditions to malign ends, is essential disharmony, unnatural, 
preternatural, and may require extranatural, or supernatu- 
ral, conditions to compass its correction or elimination. 

With the above view of the objective action of God, 
we may properly term the natural world a creation. 
Whether or not the method of creation is that of "evo- 
lution" as held or opposed by physical scientists, does not 
concern us here. For whether the method of God's objec- 
tive action may have occupied millions of centuries, ex- 
tended through numberless stages of nebulse, organism, 
and life, building conditions upon which new forms of 
life arise to condition the rise of still succeeding forms 
before conscious self-determination breaks forth in a per- 



n8 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

sonal universe; or whether he directly posits the con- 
ditions upon which races of finite persons arise and deter- 
mine their development ; or whether he created dependent 
persons in a full-orbed finite perfection which they have 
degraded, cannot influence this question, the evolution of 
the nature of a self-existent reality. In any case these 
objective activities are but the goings forth of love's evo- 
lution devoted to the realization of an ideal universe, of 
which materialistic evolution upon any theory can be but 
a fragmentary part. 

But to return to the above statement of our conception 
of creation, its first item is of chief importance in this 
chapter : Creation is a system of conditioned divine activi- 
ties which constitute conditions upon which dependent 
beings may arise and may determine their perfection, and 
so determine a perfect universe. 

This statement affirms that God conditions, and finite 
persons determine, the universe. It implies also that the 
creation is perfect in that it affords the conditions upon 
which finite persons may determine their own perfection, 
and a perfect universe. Hence, the fact and form of the 
natural world must be conditioned by the nature of the 
Creator and the dependent freedom of the creature. We 
will, therefore, consider: 

I. Love, as the nature of the conditioning action and 
purpose of creation. 

II. Dependent freedom, as the nature of the determin- 
ing factor of the world. 

I. Under the first of these grand conditions we note 
that creation is chosen action, a step or movement in the 
evolution of love. The world is not a preexisting thing, 
but is the dependent, objective product of creative will. 

Nor is it a necessary step in God's self-determination. 
Such a view cannot discriminate his unconditioned being, 



CREATION 119 

but must imply that the original agent, God, is dependent 
upon the universe as a means to his own self-conscious 
perfection. "Unconditioned being" is essential to any 
rational view of being ; and the only view consistent with 
the unconditioned being of God and the fact of con- 
ditioned finite being is that the latter is the chosen prod- 
uct of God's objective effort. He is absolutely independ- 
ent, the universe is dependent upon him. Having found, 
too, that the nature of the unconditioned, infinite, or inde- 
pendent being is love, we have been able to see that such 
nature is unconditioned in itself; and that there is in it 
infinite freedom to act objectively or not, as he may 
choose, without implying augmentation, impairment, limi- 
tation, or abrogation of his infinite egoistic consciousness. 
Therefore we view creation as simply the evidence that 
He who is infinitely self-sufficient chooses, in his perfect 
altruistic freedom, to put forth objective and eternal 
activities in establishing and maintaining finite being. 

This choice implies intention. Contemplated as an 
object of our thought, creation is a matter of choice with 
the Creator, which implies an intention which accounts 
for the existence of the universe. The evolution of love 
is the method by which the divine intention is disclosed 
and carried out. The fact that it is an evolution does not 
preclude the fact that it has a motive for its disclosures. 
We distinctly admit that this intention may comprehend 
much more than we can discern. Yet even we can recog- 
nize in love that which amply accounts for the creation 
of a system of dependent being. We are, indeed, com- 
pelled to recognize in love a motive to such a project. 

In a former chapter we have seen that infinite being 
must be thought as having the spirit, or prompting tend- 
ency, to realize all possible being which may subsist with 
itself. And since in its realization of independent egoism 



120 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

there are the absolute freedom and prompting to altruistic 
action we must recognize the altruistic spirit of infinite 
love. We must recognize the perfect freedom, potency, 
and disposition of a love-perfected egoism to realize 
eternal and limitless altruism. 

Since his nature is devotion to the realization of ideal 
being he must be thought conscious of a conception of a 
perfect (conditioned) universe, an ideal from which may 
be explicated an indefinitely extended relationship, and 
which can be actualized only by objective beings. Hence 
he must be thought to possess an altruistic spirit which 
seeks the realization of every relational perfection, the 
actualization of all forms of truth, the determination of 
all benevolence. We cannot think of infinite egoistic 
love without including in the thought this eternal spirit 
of boundless altruism ; the spirit which seeks the realiza- 
tion of all ideals of being, every type of perfection, 
developing every line of beneficent relationship. It is 
the spirit of objective perfection. 

Since, as we have seen, intending the perfect is holi- 
ness, this altruistic spirit of love which determines itself 
as prompting to the realization of every perfection must 
be recognized by us as identical with what the sacred 
Scriptures term the "Holy Spirit," or "Spirit of Holi- 
ness" — not the formal, or relational, action of God, creat- 
ing finite things, but the concrete sentiment of infinite 
love; ever realized in the unconditioned perfection of 
God, and ever prompting the realization of all conditioned 
ideals. 

If it is asked why or how there is in perfect being this 
spirit which prompts to a divine life of objective perfec- 
tion we must answer, we cannot tell. Which is the same 
as to say, we cannot tell "how being is made," or how 
God is as he is. Why or how there is in his perfect action 



CREATION i2i 

the spirit, or active tendency, to realize finite or con- 
ditioned ideals we do not attempt to answer further than 
to say thaMove is devotion to the realization of perfect 
being, and is benevolent ; and that is the same as to say 
that perfect egoism has not only the capability, but the 
spirit, of perfect altruism. 

We might say in a concrete, popular way that a being 
whose nature is love naturally desires objects to love — 
objects who can know and prize and reciprocate his love; 
hence he creates a world of persons. This statement is 
correct enough, provided we understand by the phrase, 
"naturally desires," that God, who knows the good, the 
value of love-determined being, and the ability of his love 
to successfully condition a universe of such beings, does 
naturally, in the spirit of benevolence, desire to bestow 
this good upon others by creating them. 

What love is in kind or quality, as subjective intention, 
it must be as objective purpose. The practical goodness 
of love-involved being is the practical quality of love- 
evolved being, and hence is implied in love's creative pur- 
pose. Since the purpose thus implied in love is the practi- 
cal realization of the perfect, it is the implied purpose in 
the creation of all being. The purpose of creation is the 
realization of a perfect universe, and thus, benevolently, 
the bestowal of the highest good of being. 

A being whose nature is love cannot be thought as giv- 
ing existence to other beings in an aimless, accidental, 
or blind experimentation. The Creator, conscious of 
love's resource, is conscious that the ideal universe which 
is comprehended in love's altruistic intention can be real- 
ized by an evolution of love. The evolution of love in 
creation, therefore, is not to be thought as a purposeless 
demonstration of force, but as love's method of realizing 
its objective ideal. Hence the evolution of love is teleo- 



122 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

logical ; it is projected with a definite end in view. That 
end must be the realization of a perfect universe. 

It is in love that we find creation must have an adequate 
purpose which fully justifies the choice to create depend- 
ent beings. Nothing can have been created which is not 
implied in the grand intention of love. Since love only, 
because of its infinite altruistic freedom, can afford the 
conditions to a creation, love alone is able to assure an 
adequate result in creation. Any creation, therefore, 
which is possible to thought must be prompted and pro- 
jected as an objective determination of love. All created 
beings and all phenomena must be thought as in pursu- 
ance of such determination. We cannot evade the impli- 
cation that the motive of love's evolution is not a capri- 
cious demonstration of force, but the creation of beings 
that they may realize a great purpose. This purpose is 
implied and conditioned in love. It is the benevolent 
spirit of love choosing objective determination. 

The highest good possible to conditioned being, as God 
knows and prizes it, must be included in the purpose of 
his giving being to others. We affirm that the "highest 
good" is the object of creation, on the ground, only, 
that love is the nature of God and of his creative action ; 
and that the greatest good must be the practical value 
of perfect action, and that any action must be a good in 
proportion as that action approximates perfection. More 
explicitly : God's purpose in creation is to realize the finite, 
or objective, ideal, "the truth." He, as the Son, is con- 
scious of it in thought; the universe must determine it 
as thing. It is the realization, or actualization, of the 
ideal of finite, relational being. This intended perfection 
in creation is holy, its practical realization is the highest 
finite good ; and this is affirmed on the ground that love, 
as action which seeks the realization of the ideal, the 



CREATION 123 

achievement of the perfect in being, is both perfectly holy 
and perfectly benevolent. Hence the purpose is the reali- 
zation of ideal, or perfect finite, being ; and the benevolent 
quality of love implies that this purpose is a bestowal 
upon created persons of the highest conditioned good. 
Therefore, the purpose in projecting finite being is to 
actualize the finite ideal, achieve the highest objective 
exercise of love, the satisfaction of which is the reali- 
zation of the greatest finite good. 

What is the chief good? To this question of the ages 
our answer must be: The practical satisfaction of love 
is the supreme good; or, self-determining action which 
realizes the highest qualities of being. But what are 
the highest qualities of being? Unquestionably those 
qualities which are founded and perfectly realized in the 
unconditioned nature of God, and may be realized in 
kind by conditioned persons. This is the same as to say 
that the highest mode of life, perfectly adjusted life, con- 
ditioned or unconditioned, actualizes the supreme good. 
And since love is the nature of perfect action, which deter- 
mines the highest qualities of being, love is the highest 
mode of life, and its self-satisfaction is the supreme good. 
It can be satisfied with nothing, however pleasurable, 
but the determination of the highest qualities of one's 
being. 

The pleasure, however great, which results from 
degrading action, or is not incident to exaltation or excel- 
lence of being, is not a good and cannot satisfy love's 
spirit of self-determination. Thus, the kind of action 
which determines the perfection of its own qualities in 
God, the unconditioned being, or achieves it by process 
in conditioned beings, must be thought the highest good. 
While we may have the utmost faith that love will afford 
the largest and most enduring pleasure, as incident to 



124 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

its action, processes, and qualities, we are quite sure that 
pain is often incident to the best achievement of its con- 
ditioned activities. Hence, when we speak of the highest 
good of finite being, we do not imply that good is to be 
measured by the degree of pleasure which thereto may 
be incident. 

The good, then, is the practical quality of perfect action 
or being; the practical quality of God. Harmony with 
God is a matter of quality, and to be conscious of harmony 
with the perfect being is, in kind, or quality, the con- 
sciousness of the highest mode of dependent personality. 
This is consciousness of the supreme good, in kind. Its 
degree is modified by conditions. It is love's perfect, 
though conditioned, action. 

A mother who toils and watches that her children may 
have health and comfort scarce takes a second thought 
as to whether they will ever repay her, or be able, indeed, 
to contribute anything to her comfort. It is not the 
thought of remuneration which prompts her toil, solici- 
tude, and undying interest for them ; it is love. Love is 
her supreme, motherly good — all the more tender and 
precious if the loved ones are helpless to repay her. 

There is a love unstained by selfishness, 
Th* outpouring tide of self-abandonment, 
That loves to love; and deems its preciousness 
Repaid in loving. 

Good is a quality of love — not a quantitative result 
which is sought as an object, or end, to which love is 
a means. 

This is the dividing line, or differentiating point, be- 
tween faith and utilitarianism. Faith recognizes that the 
perfection of being is the supreme good; and from this 
position subjects the actual self, which one is, to the ideal 
self which he would become. Thus in a finite person's 



CREATION 125 

life faith affords conditions to his action, love, which 
seeks to realize perfection of quality. Utilitarianism 
seeks quantitative satisfaction for the actual self, and 
counts that the good. Faith seeks love, and accounts its 
qualities and powers as the supreme good. Utilitarian- 
ism, as a mode of life, is systematic selfishness, but faith 
affords the conditions to pure self-love, which is unselfish 
devotement to the best possible life. 

Men speak of "acting on principle," and "doing right 
because it is right." That is to say, by doing right they 
enact the truth, and truth is of the infinite ideal. This 
is devotion to the ideal, in the faith that the infinite ideal 
is actualized in God, and is, therefore, the supreme cri- 
terion of right quality, righteousness. What is termed 
"policy," as opposed to "principle," makes present actual 
self the criterion of good, and implies that in the degree 
the demands of this self are met is good attained. This 
ignores the authority of the ideal as criterion of con- 
duct ; and ignores that the good is found in realizing an 
ideal life. Faith holds that love to God as the perfect, 
and love to fellow beings with a view to their perfecting, 
is the highest mode of life. Utilitarianism: makes the 
quantitative satisfaction of one's actual self the highest 
mode of life, and gratitude for received benefits the 
highest mode of finite love. With the former, righteous- 
ness is the actualizing of truth. With the latter, right- 
eousness is the promoting of comfort, pleasure. The God 
of faith is an actual perfection to be loved, communed 
with, and copied as the absolute, exemplar, and inspirer 
of personal perfection. The God of utilitarianism is but 
a convenience. With the one quantitative possession is 
but a means by which to achieve higher quality of being. 
With the other, quality of being is desirable only to 
accumulate greater quantitative satisfaction. It is the 



126 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

old question, as between Abel and Cain, Stoic and Epicu- 
rean, the Sermon on the Mount and Jewish greed, and 
as between those who still think the universe exists for 
the perfection of finite being and those who hold that 
its object is pleasurable satisfaction. 

Of course, the evolution of love sustains the faith- 
view. Since love seeks to realize the perfect, it follows 
that the perfection of finite being is the grand object to 
be accomplished. Hence, the highest mode of life, the 
highest determination of character, is realized by devo- 
tion to the true, the perfect; indifferent as to whether 
greater good could be otherwise attained. "For a man's 
life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which 
he possesseth." The qualitative perfection of the universe 
must be attained before the degree of good possible to 
finite beings can be intelligently estimated, or the attain- 
ment of it be free from all embarrassments. 

Nothing, it seems, can be clearer than that living, not 
possessing, is the true excellence ; and that right living, 
living in interaction, communion, companionship with the 
perfect, must be the supreme good. Nor can any affirma- 
tion be more confidently made than that utilitarianism is, 
after all, nothing but readjusted selfishness. 

The universe must attain perfection in kind before it 
can be free from disadvantage in determining the degree 
of its good. When perfect harmony and perfect security 
are achieved, then the largest freedom for good will begin 
to be realized. 

These affirmations are made, of course, upon the 
ground that the good, beneficence, 'is but a practical 
quality in love which is the perfect mode of being; and 
benevolence, the bestowal of good, is its incidental out- 
come. It cannot be thought that any addition to his own 
nature or good is sought by the Infinite One in the crea- 



CREATION 127 

tion. The independent cannot be thought to depend, 
in any sense, upon anything, especially not upon depend- 
ent action or being. Hence, we affirm that the creation 
is purely a bestowal of being upon those created; and 
since love is the nature of the Creator, and his objective 
action is an evolution of love, it must follow that his 
bestowal of being is purely benevolent. 

The perfect altruistic freedom, the infinite unselfish- 
ness, must find in this purpose ample incentive to create 
and sustain other beings to share its good. Dependent 
being, which is a positive good — which is, upon the whole, 
better than nonexistence — is such being as love can benev- 
olently authorize. Since love is action which is devoted 
to the realization of the ideal, an ideal system of depend- 
ent being must be thought a worthy object of such devote- 
ment. If God can conceive a system of dependent being 
which may not, upon the whole, impose wrong upon any 
portion or person in it, but place it within the power and 
conditions of each being therein to make his existence 
a positive good, then benevolence would prompt to the 
creation of such a system. Or if, in his absolute knowl- 
edge of love, God sees that it is a kind of action which 
can develop such a system of good, then benevolent rea- 
son appears why love which attains infinite egoistic good 
should also be devoted to attaining the highest altruistic 
good. It seems impossible to see that love would purpose 
otherwise. Not for his perfect good, but for his glory, the 
manifestation of his perfection and endless resource of 
goodness for others, he creates all things. 

It comes to this : The bestowal of perfect finite being 
and all it may achieve is the purpose, to which infinite 
love is the motive, in creation. Here that supreme devote- 
ment to perfect being which appears in God as infinite 
self-love sweeps out into the objective process of main- 



128 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

taining the perfect conditioned being of finite creatures, 
and illustrates objectively the infinite and inseparable 
holiness and benevolence of perfect egoism. Love, the 
perfect action which realizes the infinite in God, seeks to 
achieve the perfect finite. Inasmuch as nonexistence has 
no possibilities and is worthless, and in being, only, is 
the possibility of good, the founder of finite being founds 
it for all its possible good. Love does this in founding 
beings which may actualize an ideal in their individual 
being, and an ideal universe as a whole. 

It is because his nature is love that the independent 
One is the all-supporting author of dependent being. 
This is to say, that the infinite person has, in his perfect 
action, love, a perfect egoistic life and chooses also a 
perfect altruistic life. One has the consciousness of 
unconditioned perfection, the other is the objective, or 
altruistic, in which he has the consciousness of condition- 
ing perfection in others. His perfect egoism has the 
spirit and potency of perfect altruism, realizes infinite, 
unconditioned being in himself, and determines the fact 
and form of the dependent universe. Perfect in himself, 
he is perfect for all others. 

When we speak of perfect objective action or being 
it is to be understood that perfect conditioned action or 
being is meant. It is in this sense that we affirm creation 
must be perfect. 

Love's creative action must project the highest ideal 
of conditioned being — a perfect universe. It must con- 
template, and afford conditions for, the production of the 
highest conditioned good. Devotement to ideal perfec- 
tion is, in creation, devotement to ideal conditioned per- 
fection. What love is, in kind, in its infinite self-deter- 
mination, must be its character in its finite determination.; 
Since it is perfect action, it must be thought perfect in its 



CREATION 129 

objective activities, with no exception save as limited by 
the conditions which are implied in its relation to its 
object. It must be thought to project none other than a 
perfect conditioned universe, the maximum excellence 
of conditioned being. This is to say that love is not only 
supreme devotement to egoistic perfection, but is, in the 
Creator, supreme devotement to the realization of altruis- 
tic perfection. Without impairing or perverting itself, 
but in direct accord with its own ineffaceable perf ectness, 
it creates and sustains a ceaseless universe of dependent 
being. It abides in the consciousness of unconditioned 
perfection while determining its self-consciousness of 
perfect conditioned being ; abides in the consciousness of 
absolute reality while consciously real in all its objective 
relations ; abides in the practical experience of infinite 
good, and also bestows the highest finite good. Perfect 
action in itself, it is perfect as it relates itself to objects. 
God's objective action, then, must be regarded as the 
conditioned goings-forth of love in relation to objects. 

Creative love only creates the conditions to perfection. 
Being the nature of the force which expresses itself in 
the creation of dependent beings, it is the content which 
determines the forms of creation. These forms and their 
relations to the Creator, toward each other, and within 
themselves are results founded by love. Hence, love's 
holiness, or perfectness of intention, must have in it the 
highest ideal of dependent being; and its objective action 
aims to realize that ideal. The creation, then, must be 
the highest type of conditioned action, realizing the high- 
est conditioned good as a whole. The Creator must be 
thought able to say of his work, "Behold, it is very good." 

Since, as seen in Chapter III, Part First, conditioning 
and determining comprehend the whole of conditioned 
being, it is clear the creation is a system of activities which 



i 3 o IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

only establishes conditions for the rise and development 
of finite beings. And since we have seen that creative 
action is conditioned, it is both conditioned and condition- 
ing. It seeks to realize the highest attainable form of 
finite being; but as such "highest form" must include per- 
sons who, though conditioned, are self-determining within 
their conditions, it is plain that creative action is confined 
to establishing conditions, simply. It establishes con- 
ditions upon which finite beings may themselves determine 
their perfection, and experience their highest conditioned 
good. And since the whole universe in its entire history 
is interrelated it must be viewed as a whole which imposes 
conditions upon each of its members ; and the whole term 
of his career and scope of his relationship must be con- 
sidered when we estimate the excellence or perfection of 
any finite being. Hence, it is the highest of dependent 
being, as a whole, and the perfecting of each being as 
conditioned by the perfecting of the whole, which we 
affirm when we say that creation is perfect conditioning 
action, at all times and places affording to all beings the 
best conditions to their perfection which God's perfect 
objective action can posit. 

Since created beings must be conditioned beings, and 
also must condition each other and be conditioned by 
each other, lower orders constituting conditions to the 
higher, love's choice is to create them of such type and 
upon such conditions as will afford the highest good, upon 
the whole, to each and all. Such is the perfect creation ; 
and love, seeking the perfect, seeks the highest con- 
ditioned good possible to each and all, and at all times. 
The highest type of perfection for the universe, as a 
whole, and forever, must condition the type and the good 
of individuals and the universe at the various stages of 
their development. Hence the degree of excellence, how- 



CREATION 131 

ever great or small at any moment, is conditioned by all 
the influences which are concerned in realizing the high- 
est good upon the whole. Whatever influences there may 
be which hinder, retard, or accelerate the actualization 
of the ideal universe, they are parts of the conditions upon 
which the perfection of finite being is to be realized. 
These conditions may, severally, be more or less influ- 
ential at one time than at another, and by so much will 
influence the degree of good realized at such time. But 
the fact remains, as an implication of love, that the degree 
of good realized by finite beings at any particular stage 
of their being is the highest possible to them at that stage, 
considering the determining forces and the conditions 
which, as a whole, can produce a perfect universe. 

An evolving force which is holy and good would pro- 
vide that the beings who are creatures of its evolution 
should be conditioned at all times and at all points for 
their greatest possible good. But "their greatest possible 
good" means the greatest good possible to all and through 
the entire term of their existence ; hence, this greatest sum 
of good must condition the degree of good possible to 
each person at any given time or place. All comes to 
this : A Creator whose nature is love will secure the great- 
est good, upon the whole, to which his creatures, as a 
whole, may be made receptive. 

Since the objective action of God must be thought as 
always seeking to realize his ideal, the Creator must be 
regarded as actualizing an ideal world so far forth as 
the world is solely his action. This implies that the 
creative action is not only perfect as conditioned action, 
but is perfect conditioning action also. This, however, 
does not imply that the universe is perfect. 

The creation is perfect, but the universe is not. A per- 
fect universe must, at least, be one in which every depend- 



132 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

ent being who has any degree of self-determination acts in 
harmony with the conditions of his being, perfectly inter- 
acts with the Creator's action; one in which beings of 
conditioned freedom act in harmony w'ith conditions 
assigned them by the Creator. The action which founds 
them and their natural conditions constitutes the creation, 
but their self-determined selves, and their assigned con- 
ditions as used or abused by them, constitute the universe. 
The Creator's action affords the conditions in finite beings 
upon which their intentions arise, and upon which their 
action proceeds in all respects. If their action is in ac- 
cordance with the intention implied in those conditions 
they may be said to articulate, or act in harmony with 
the creative action ; that is, in harmony with their nature. 
They may choose to articulate with that creative action, 
or they may neglect or abuse it, and so- pervert it. The 
Creator's action is "very good" ; but if neglected, abused, 
perverted by the action of dependent beings, it must fall 
very far short of being good. The perfection of the uni- 
verse is in the perfect interaction or articulation of the 
creature with the Creator ; but the perfection of creation 
is in the possibility of such interaction. 

The possibility of such interaction of dependent with 
independent being, then, must be the perfect creation. 
Such perfect creation does not exclude the possibility of 
disharmony, nor does an inharmonious universe argue an 
imperfect creation. A creation that is proof against dis- 
harmony is but a machine, and can never develop into 
a realization of an ideal universe. The perfection of the 
creation is that it has the possibilities, affords the con- 
ditions, of a perfect objective universe; and these pos- 
sibilities are they which render it liable to disharmonies. 

The possibility of perfectly harmonious interaction of 
dependent with independent being is the possibility of 



CREATION 133 

universal harmony. Love's perfect action is trie basis of 
implied harmony between the independent subject and 
the dependent objects, who by reason of their self -deter- 
mining power within finite limits may, as subjects or 
actors, harmonize with the Creator and with each other. 
Thus, as divine love is the basis of universal harmony, 
the loving reciprocation of divine love by finite persons 
is the harmonizing action which is to determine a perfect 
universe. But as dependent persons are free to recipro- 
cate the creative love, or not, they may determine their 
own action and development, determine themselves, so 
as to produce defect and disharmony within the bosom of 
a perfect creation. 

What types of dependent being shall be created are 
implied in love. Love's ideal is the law which decides 
what these types may be. Thus, love implies that no 
beings will exist except such as may actualize an ideal 
which implies their highest good. Whatever may be 
their type it must realize good to them in the degree 
the type is practically attained. The full actualization 
of the ideal of any type of being must yield the highest 
good possible to such being. Actualizing their ideal 
according to their type is the method of attaining their 
chief good. Whatever may be the form of devotement 
by which each actualizes his ideal, that is his form or 
mode of love. It thus appears that love is the perfect, 
or supreme, determining action in all conscious beings. 
It is, in all, the action which realizes their ideal. 

Without such perfect action within their conditions 
they do not actualize their ideal selves; hence, cannot 
achieve their highest good, but must incur condemnation 
from their ideal. The discrepancy between the ideal self 
and actual self is the measure of their condemnation. Dis- 
crepancy between the ideal self and the actual self, of 



i 34 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

which persons are conscious, is consciousness of failure, 
misfortune, or guilt, or all combined. The perfection of 
the individual, like the perfection of the universe, depends 
upon realizing that ideal which love's creative action pre- 
scribes in his type. In the measure this perfection is 
approximated is the good of each achieved. 

It is vain to speculate whether the creation, as we per- 
ceive it, is a perfect creation. The limitedness of our per- 
ception of it, or of the entire career of even one finite 
being, prevents our forming a judgment from' the world- 
point of view. We hold all optimism and pessimism, 
based upon an attempted balance sheet of the world's 
good and ill, as most shallow and vain wrangling. Only 
from ontological implication can a judgment be rationally 
ventured ; and that judgment must rest upon the nature 
of absolute reality. And since action is reality, and the 
nature of the absolute, perfect action is love, and the crea- 
tion is an evolution of love, the creation must be an evo- 
lution of real beneficence. It must be, upon the whole, 
benevolent and beneficent — perfect in the determination 
of an order or form of dependent being. 

Whether that perfect form of dependent being must be 
thought as created full-orbed or progressively developed 
through a series of stages will be considered later. Let it 
suffice to recognize here that a conditioning power whose 
nature is love, and therefore true and good, holy and 
benevolent, must ultimately achieve such perfect world 
— a world not ultimately true and good, but always true 
and good; always of the highest beneficence within the 
conditions imposed by the essential factors of a perfect 
universe, namely, divine love, which cannot rest short of 
realizing the ideal of all finite being, and the self-deter- 
mining freedom of dependent persons. 

Perfect altruism implies that every type of being which 



CREATION 135 

may be founded in holiness and benevolence may, per- 
haps must, arise at some stage in the creative process; 
and that none other can arise than such as may be made 
a participant in the harmonies of perfect finite beneficence. 
If disharmonies arise, disturbing the right relations of 
created beings, it is because some or all of these beings 
are able to determine themselves otherwise than as pur- 
posed by divine love. Yet these disharmonies are within 
the all-conditioning embrace of love's limitless altruism, 
and will be rendered either self-correcting or self-elim- 
inating. 

What are termed "physical disturbances" and "animal 
antagonisms" may or may not be real disharmonies in 
the world-order. Like the questions of optimism and pes- 
simism, they are indeterminable by us, because of the 
lack of full data. Inasmuch as the lowest forms of con- 
scious being may have, and for aught we can know do 
have, an instinctively sought perfection, in attaining 
which the interest, the joy, of being is realized ; inasmuch 
as the lowest type of person has his ideal to actualize, 
his chief good to attain, his sacred to adore, his beautiful 
to enjoy, this love-projected type of being must be thought 
intrinsically good. All other things are good only as 
related to being. Nonbeing is nothing, has neither 
quality nor worth. Evil or undesirable being is abused, 
debased being. Being may have its pangs, its woes, but, 
conditioned in love, they are incident to attaining higher 
excellence. Nonbeing is without a pang, but it is without 
a thrill of joy or glory. The self-determining agent of 
lowest type finds a charm in his being which makes him 
strong to endure all hardships so long as his self-deter- 
mination is not degrading, but upward, toward self-per- 
fection. It is only when self-determination sinks toward 
its entire loss in complete dependence that the charm of 



136 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

being can be lost, or existence cease to be a good. Hence, 
we say that in being, only, are the possibilities of good ; 
and all forms of being must be objects of interest with 
that divine spirit which we have termed "supreme devote- 
ment to the determination of being" — perfect being in 
the independent, perfect conditioned being in the depend- 
ency self-determining, instinctive being in the instinc- 
tively determined. 

A study of cosmic phenomena may, indeed, develop a 
probability that the Creator is benevolent and his action 
harmonious, but it cannot decide these questions. Sub- 
jective religious experience may deepen this probability 
into a profound conviction, but this amounts to nothing 
more, as evidence, than to corroborate what has been 
primarily implied in the divine nature. This corrobora- 
tion, it is true, may amount to a spiritual demonstration, 
but a demonstration wrought upon a previous acceptance, 
by faith, of the point in question, the benevolence of God. 
The more we learn of his cosmic activities, and the more 
accurately we articulate with them, the more successful 
are our industries, the more nearly perfect our arts, the 
more accurate our sciences, the sounder our finances, the 
more progressive our civilization, the better our health, 
and the more symmetrical and strong our characters. 
This is, however, the full height of the cosmic argument 
for the benevolence of the Creator. It argues that if all 
dependent persons were perfectly self-adjusted to the 
Creator's action there is the highest probability that their 
greatest good would be attained. But it is only in the 
fact that love is the nature of the coordinating action of 
the universe that we have independent assurance that the 
creation is perfect. The holiness of love assures that 
God's intention, in his objective action, cannot fall below 
his ideal of a universe. This implication is as clear as 



CREATION 137 

that the self-determined nature of God cannot fall below 
infinite perfection without being conditioned and con- 
demned by his infinite conception, or ideal. A perfect 
God implies a perfect Creator; neither can be realized 
except in the unconditioned and all-conditioning perfect 
action, love. The moral authority of love's perfect action 
must condemn any form of creation which falls below 
the possible realization of an ideal universe. The perfect 
action of love implies a perfect conception and a complete 
achievement of dependent perfection. 

The ideal universe, God's ideal, his conception of per- 
fect finite being, must be quite beyond all that human 
imagination can picture. No attempt to describe it can 
be tolerated. Yet concerning it there are certain implica- 
tions which reason must affirm. Since love is devoted 
to realizing the perfect, it is a perfect universe, only, 
which its evolution can have in view. This action, though 
conditioned, is perfect within its conditions. God's action, 
which is the going-forth of love only by virtue of its 
devotion to the perfect, cannot be self-conscious love if 
it seek less than to realize the ideal. Not only does love 
realize the absolute perfect in the independent being, and 
the relative ideal in the "Eternal Son," the Creator, but, 
having chosen to create a universe, love must be thought 
devoted to the realization of an ideal universe. 

Moreover, an ideal universe when actually realized is 
a perfect universe ; a perfect universe realizes the highest 
conditioned good; and divine love acting objectively, 
though within limited conditions, cannot imply less than 
this highest conditioned good. 

However perfect the universe may be or become, it 
must, nevertheless, be conditioned by the relations of 
subject and object and dependence. But since love is the 
nature of that action which creates and carries on the 



138 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

universe, love must be recognized as the all-comprehend- 
ing condition which assures a universe which shall be a 
perfect realization of the ideal finite being, the object of 
a perfect determination of divine altruism. 

On this account, the ideal universe must be the primary 
or dominating condition to> the creation and carrying on 
of the actual universe, the natural world. All that is 
created and all that is developed on the part of nature 
has reference to the ideal universe, and must be estimated 
according to that criterion. Whatever may be the degree 
of good or ill actually experienced in the universe, the im- 
plication of love is that it is the highest good of which 
existing conditions will admit ; and existing conditions at 
any given time are imposed by their relation to the actual- 
izing of love's ideal universe. At each point in the history 
of the universe the highest good is realized which can be, 
upon the conditions which ultimately afford a perfect uni- 
verse. Hence, the creation is both perfect and good 
because it affords the natural conditions upon which the 
ideal universe may be realised. 

All this implies that the ideal universe which love seeks 
in its evolution very far transcends any which power can 
create outright. If creation, as evolved by love, is not 
the full-orbed, unalloyed good of perfect finite being it is 
owing, not to a defect, but an excellence, in creation. 
This excellence is in the fact that creation affords, not 
a perfect mechanism, but a stable basis from which 
divine love perpetually evolves conditions upon which 
finite persons may determine ever-progressing com- 
panionship with each other and with the Infinite Person 
— love's ideal universe. 

The perfection of dependent personality cannot be 
created; hence, a peirfect universe cannot be created. 
Personality consists in self-determination ; dependent per- 



CREATION 139 

sonality consists in dependent, or conditioned, self-deter- 
mination. Hence, dependent persons must determine their 
own conditioned perfection. To suppose the creation 
of perfect dependent persons would be to suppose that one 
person could determine what is self-determined in an- 
other; that is, to suppose a contradiction. Hence, it is 
impossible to thought; persons are persons by virtue of 
determining their own characters, perfect or otherwise. 
This they may do, dependent upon the conditions the 
Creator affords. Perfect creation, therefore, is simply 
the affording perfect conditions upon which depend- 
ent persons may determine their perfect being, and there- 
by determine a perfect universe. 

II. Dependent freedom, or dependent self-determina- 
tion, as the nature of the determining factor of the world, 
is now to be considered. Being one of the factors which 
determine the universe, that factor, as well as creative 
action, must be recognized as essential to the perfecting 
process. These two main factors comprehend and express 
all the conditions incident to the project of a universe; 
and since love is the nature of the divine action which 
affords the original conditions of finite being, we are 
assured that these original conditions are afforded for 
the purpose of achieving a universe of perfected persons. 
These two factors cooperating, the ideal universe will 
be realized. 

The perfectness of the natural world, created with ref- 
erence to love's ideal world, has its chief exponent in the 
free self-determination of finite persons. While this is 
an excellence without which there could be no objective 
universe, it may, of course, menace the order and har- 
mony of the world, and baffle for ages the realization of 
the ideal universe. Inasmuch as each person is free to 
choose what his action shall be, in all those respects in 



i 4 o IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

which he determines himself, it is plain that the perfect- 
ing of the universe must depend upon the will of each 
finite person as well as upon the will of the Creator. 
Accepting the Creator's action as the coordinating 
ground, with and upon which all his creatures may har- 
moniously interact, it remains for dependent persons to 
determine the perfection of the universe by determining 
themselves in harmony with him. But since dependent 
persons may, or may not, harmonize with the conditions 
which creative love posits as the coordinating ground 
of their action, it is clear that the most which creation 
can do toward achieving a perfect universe is to establish 
the most favorable conditions upon which the harmonious 
action of dependent persons may be secured. Hence, love 
implies that their nature and natural environment are 
created in the form most favorable to their perfect har- 
monization. That the creation is perfect, then, is illus- 
trated by the fact that it affords adequate conditions upon 
which dependent persons may determine perfect depend- 
ent personality. 

But since one person cannot determine the self-deter- 
mining of another, but can only determine conditions 
upon which another may or must determine himself, it is 
also true that the conditions thus imposed may be modi- 
fied by the persons who act upon them, using or abusing 
them, or determining themselves otherwise than in har- 
mony with them. It is evident that in conditioning the 
finite perfection of dependent persons the Creator enables 
them to condition his own action. Hence we may affirm 
of the conditions to a perfect universe that they must be 
the joint product of the Creator and creatures ; and this 
is the same as to say that the perfectness of creative action 
implies original conditions which, though modified by 
dependent persons, may yet serve as a basis upon which 



CREATION 141 

errors may be corrected, and dependent persons may 
realize the divine ideal of dependent personality. 

Since, then, the two factors which determine the uni- 
verse are divine love, affording the original conditions, 
and dependent persons, determining themselves upon 
these conditions — or upon these conditions as modified 
in and by themselves — since these factors determine the 
universe, the perfection of it depends upon the willing 
interaction of dependent persons with the independent. 
This interaction is, of course, the work of finite persons 
conforming themselves to the nature which creative love 
has given them; and they do this by reciprocating that 
love by devotion to God as absolute perfection. This 
is their highest devotement to the perfect One — pure, 
unalloyed love. 

Self-love, which is devotement to self-perfection, is 
not only in harmony with this supreme love toward God, 
because he is infinite perfection, but is anticipated and 
comprehended by it ; its highest realization results as inci- 
dent to this supreme devotement to the absolutely perfect 
One. For a dependent person to love the infinitely per- 
fect One supremely, trusting that his own best self will 
be attained incident therewith, is trusting that his devo- 
tion to supreme perfection will determine his self-perfec- 
tion. The supreme action, love toward God, reacts to 
the accomplishment of one's best self, which is the object 
of pure self-love. Love of the infinite ideal which is 
actualized in God comprehends devotion to the ideal in 
one's self, and realizes the ideal life. 

This voluntary committing the fortunes of self-love 
to his supreme love of God, by a dependent person, is 
faith in its highest form. Next to it is that faith which 
risks the interests of the actual self by seeking them as 
only incident to the realization of his ideal self. 



142 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

Love toward fellow finite beings, which is devotement 
to their perfecting, is likewise of a piece with this same 
supreme devotion to the perfect. 

Moreover, supreme devotion to the perfect, steadfast 
love toward God, comprehending and developing pure 
self-love and universal mutual love, is holy, because of its 
perfect intention. It achieves, also, the supreme good, 
because it realizes practical perfection. It is perfect de- 
pendent being in companionship with independent being. 

These affirmations, concerning the actual universe 
which shall realize love's ideal, warrant the affirmation 
that the perfect universe must be (i) harmonious as 
unity, (2) free as caprice, yet (3) secure as fate. These 
three grand characteristics are all self-conscious in love, 
and are to be enacted, determined, by finite persons, per- 
fectly loving God upon the conditions which creative love 
affords. 

1. If I were the only person in existence I would be 
at liberty to do as I please ; but as soon as another person 
exists the perfection of our existence implies that our 
action shall be harmoniously adjusted toward each other ; 
and if I have established the conditions of his existence 
he is dependent upon me, and he must determine his har- 
monization with me by acting in harmony with these con- 
ditions. This assumes, of course, that the conditions of 
his being which I have established are essentially har- 
monious in themselves and with me. So, also, when 
another and another person come to exist upon the same 
conditions the perfection of this community of beings 
cannot be achieved save by their choosing to act in har- 
monious adjustment to each other; and such action will 
be accomplished only by their acting in harmony with 
the common conditions which I have established for their 
existence. Hence, it is clear that perfection implies com- 



CREATION 143 

plete harmony in all the action and interaction of persons 
who exist in relation to each other. However vast may 
be the number of persons composing the personal uni- 
verse, the same truth applies. The perfection of the uni- 
verse necessarily implies complete harmony in all their 
multiplied relations, and each one bears his part in deter- 
mining this harmony. 

2. Freedom, the largest self -determining freedom pos- 
sible to dependent beings, must be affirmed of the perfect 
universe. Since personality consists in self-determina- 
tion, and perfect self-determination is perfect personality, 
or independent being, perfect dependent personality im- 
plies the greatest degree of self-determining freedom 
consistent with dependence of being. And since a perfect 
universe is one of the highest interaction of finite with 
infinite being, it follows that the highest degree of self- 
determination possible to dependent persons is requisite 
to a perfect universe. 

But the self-determining freedom of a conditioned per- 
son means freedom to act upon his natural conditions; 
he may use or abuse these conditions. If he abuse them 
he may modify them and thus impair them as conditions 
to his interaction with the independent or with his fellow- 
dependent beings, and thus debase his conditions, render 
them more limiting to his freedom, and thus narrow its 
scope. Free action may be circumscribed in the scope 
of its operation, but is never clearly thinkable as modified 
in the quality of freedom. Self-determination is free. If 
not free it is not self-determining. Restriction of scope 
limits the extent to which freedom may be exercised, but 
does not impair its free quality within the scope where it 
is exercised. There may be action which is free in some 
respects, but restricted in others. In the respects in which 
it is free it is completely so; in the respects in which it 



144 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

is restricted it is without freedom. Hence, it follows that 
as a person may, by abuse, impair his natural conditions 
he may increase his limitations, restrict and ultimately 
crush his freedom. Thus it appears that the widest 
range of freedom possible to each dependent person must 
be self-determined. If he had been created at that high 
and wide range of freedom the maintenance of that range 
must be by his self-determination. If creation places him 
in conditions of a lower and narrower scope which he may 
gradually outgrow or expand, and thus progressively 
rise to the highest and widest range of freedom possible 
to a dependent person, he must accomplish it by his own 
self-determination. 

It is clear, then, that a perfect universe, harmonious 
in the action and interaction of Creator and creature, 
must be determined finally by the creature. The theo- 
logians of a past day contended much over the harmoniza- 
tion of "divine sovereignty" and human "free-will." Had 
they clearly considered that the Creator's objective action 
is but to maintain the conditions upon which dependent 
persons may arise and determine a perfect universe, it 
could not have been difficult to find scope for human 
freedom ; and since this conditioning action is self-chosen 
by the Creator, they could just as easily have seen divine 
sovereignty, independence, exercised in his imposing upon 
himself the obligations and conditions which human free- 
dom implies. 

3. Security, the assurance against disharmony, not- 
withstanding the largest finite freedom, must characterize 
a perfect universe. A person who* is susceptible to> evil 
temptation is not perfect, nor is a universe perfect which 
is liable to discord and defection. It does not realize 
perfect conditions to companionship of finite persons with 
each other or with the Infinite Being. Nor can it realize 



CREATION 145 

his ideal to the Creator or achieve his purpose in creation. 
Perfect interaction of finite with infinite cannot be thought 
as tainted with a shade of apprehension or suspicion of 
ill. 

Here, indeed, is a dilemma: The largest freedom of 
dependent persons is requisite to the conception of a per- 
fect universe, yet this freedom cannot but be thought a 
continual menace to its harmony; and a menace to har- 
mony is imperfection. The perfect universe must be har- 
monious, must be free, yet must be secure against the dan- 
gers of freedom. This security cannot be attained by any 
necessitative measures. It must be maintained along with 
the largest finite freedom. But it must contain an im- 
probability of defection so great as to be practically 
equivalent to an impossibility. Or, to state it positively, 
the probability of steadfastness must be practically equal 
to certainty. 

Moreover, such perfect knowledge of his relationship 
toward God and his fellow-beings as will preclude dis- 
cord by error, mistake, is implied in each person in order 
that the perfect harmony of the universe may not be 
marred by harmful inadvertence. 

Such is the moral security which is implied in the con- 
ception of a perfect universe — a security which is not 
the result of force or fate, though it render the improba- 
bility of discord or defection practically equal to fate. 
The fact that it is a moral security implies that it is 
determined by dependent persons themselves. It must 
be that experienced demonstration of faith of which per- 
fect love toward God is conscious, and which compre- 
hends the realization of self-love. After this demonstra- 
tion is achieved the supreme devotion to God as absolute 
perfection, which had demonstrated this faith, abides in 
augmented intensity and power. Hence it appears that 



146 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

the supreme love of finite persons toward God determines 
their eternal security in universal harmony — a personal 
harmony of which they can be fully conscious only in the 
consciousness of the fullest freedom of dependent beings. 
This perfection of finite persons in harmony, freedom, 
and security may be determined by and in themselves 
upon the original conditions which the creation affords. 

But this perfection of the universe is simply perfection 
in kind, not in degree ; in quality, not in quantity. Though 
unspeakable good as well as unutterable ill may have 
attended its development, the object of creation, namely, 
the highest possible conditioned good, has not yet been 
realized. The conditions adequate to its achievement 
have just been established ; and these, let it be said again, 
are perfect harmony, freedom, and security. The objec- 
tive scope for God's altruistic freedom is only now at- 
tained. In his personal perfection, doubtless, God is 
conscious of perfect altruistic freedom; but in a perfect 
universe, in kind, he finds perfect objective altruistic 
scope. The altruistic intent is perfectly self-conscious in 
the Creator, but it does not realize perfect objective self- 
consciousness until conscious of the perfect harmoniza- 
tion with itself of the dependent persons who are its 
objects. This consciousness of their perfect harmoniza- 
tion must include his consciousness of their fullest free- 
dom and self-determined security. The perfect universe, 
perfect in kind, is thus opened to the practical altruistic 
freedom of divine love. 

The qualities and powers which are capable of endless 
progress are implicit in the universe of dependent per- 
sons, now perfect in their harmony, freedom, and security, 
and constitute but the unembarrassed opportunity, as a 
foundation, for that good which it is the purpose of love 
to bestow. Whatever may have been the method of the 



CREATION 147 

creative process is not pertinent to this question. Even 
though incalculable periods of the Creator's objective 
activity may have preceded a period of "fire mist," which 
scientists suppose, it could only evince how deep and 
wide this foundation is laid. This perfect universe, per- 
fect in self-determined harmony, freedom, and security, 
is the completed foundation which intimates how massive 
is the superstructure of good which love purposes to build 
thereupon. 

"The good of being" has a composite meaning. What 
it comprehends we cannot tell. We only use the term 
"good" to express what is of real interest, benefit, value, 
satisfaction. It is the being or possessing that which 
gives value to one's self. Hence, it may be increased or 
diminished in finite beings. Of the absolutely perfect 
Being we say he is "the infinite good"; and the com- 
munion and harmony of finite beings with him yields 
to them their supreme good. It does this because it 
exalts them to their highest realization of themselves and 
their highest appreciation of all others, and hence gives 
to their existence its greatest value. Hence, it is true 
that "Love is its own reward," the supreme good. But 
since love is perfect action, the infinite resource, its evo- 
lution implies limitless development of good. To finite 
beings who are secure in their amplest freedom and har- 
mony there opens up an endless progress in the experi- 
ence of good. 

Harmony, freedom, and security are thus the immedi- 
ate conditions to the highest conditioned good. Upon 
the natural conditions which the Creator's action posits 
dependent persons determine these as leading charac- 
teristics of a perfect universe. These self-determined 
characteristics of a universe thus perfected in kind become 
conditions upon which the universe is elaborated in de- 



148 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

gree. The perfection of creation, or nature, is in the 
affording the primary conditions upon which these char- 
acteristics can be determined by finite persons. The per- 
fection of the universe consists in the adequacy of these 
self-determined characteristics to condition the unalloyed 
and largest good of dependent being. That they are 
adequate conditions readily appears. Harmony implies 
the perfect interaction of dependent persons with their 
own natures, and perfect harmony of action with each 
other and with their environment. Since love is the 
nature of the Creator's action, loving reciprocation of 
that action by dependent persons, in common, renders 
their relations to God and each other entirely holy and 
beneficent. With love as the all-conditioning and coor- 
dinating action dependent persons interact, and thus har- 
monize each with all. Perfectly harmonious interaction 
of dependent with, independent must be able to realize 
the highest and most real good of which a dependent 
universe can be thought capable. Harmonious personal 
adjustment, carried forward without interruption by 
either error or willful disharmony, is the only thinkable 
basis upon which dependent persons can realize their 
highest good as individuals and universally. The crea- 
tive nature being the common conditioning ground, their 
perfect adjustment to it must assure that good which is 
its grand creative purpose. 

Moreover, this harmony secures the right of self-love, 
individual devotion to ideal selfhood, in all. Pure self- 
love implies the perfection of each for the perfection of 
all. Love, devotion to realizing the ideal, enacting the 
perfect, being the law of universal adjustment, carries 
with it that devotion to the ideal self which is self-love. 
Hence, love, dominating all personal interaction, implies 
the harmonization of all individual self-love. Love, as 



CREATION 149 

self-love, is able to attain its highest good, not only be- 
cause it actualizes its ideal self, but because its ideal self 
actualized is its best practical self. This actualized ideal, 
or perfect self, is an egoism which affords the highest 
altruistic freedom, is capable of the greatest objective 
unselfishness. This is to say that one's best self is his best 
not only for himself, but for all others; and that self- 
love, which is devotement tp one's best self, is at one with 
all love, not only in that it seeks to realize ideal being in 
one's self, but in that it is one with unselfishness toward 
others. That perfectly harmonious interaction of depend- 
ent and independent being must condition the highest 
good is evinced by this implication of love, namely, that 
the highest good of any dependent being is attained only 
in harmony with the highest good of all being. 

Again, if this universal harmony have in it the con- 
sciousness of the largest freedom possible to dependent 
persons, and also the consciousness of perfect moral 
security, the conditions to the highest good must be 
thought complete. 

What purpose or purposes, what definite activities, 
may give form to the highest good, it is not ours to affirm, 
but 1 we may be sure that love to God, that the pursuit of 
communion with, and deeper knowledge of, God will be 
the grand devotement of all who would realize the su- 
preme good. No matter how high or low may be the 
nature of finite persons, the actual perfection of God 
must always and to all alike be the infinite ideal to which 
they may be forever supremely devoted, which they may 
forever commune with and be assimilated to, and which 
will ever be the supreme moral criterion in the faith, 
hope, and love of the universe — the reality and glory of 
all its exploitation and achievement. This devotion to 
the infinite ideal is the love which, in finite persons, in- 



150 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

eludes devotion to an ideal self, realizing pure self-love, 
and its devotion to the true in all things. Devotion to 
the infinite perfection reacts in their characters and ex- 
presses itself in their activities among themselves, and 
realizes the supreme good of dependent persons. This 
companionship with the infinite affords the further objec- 
tive determination of divine love, and is the grand pur- 
pose of creation. 

A progressive universe, only, can achieve these three 
grand characteristics which condition the highest good. 
Perhaps it may be urged that perfect intelligence might 
preclude disharmony ; and that God might create depend- 
ent beings with such perfect intuition and vast suscepti- 
bilities and powers that they could grasp at once the entire 
finite conception and full significance of divine love, and 
reciprocate that love in the full measure of dependent 
being. Some such creation is what certain sensational 
philosophers, such as Mr. John Stuart Mill, argued is 
necessary to prove from the world that it is the work of 
a perfect Creator. Persons, it is supposed, who are cre- 
ated in such perfection of powers might avoid all error 
in the exercise of their freedom. Created with the high- 
est finite ability to know and do, they could avoid all error, 
and in the fullest detail accomplish the highest harmonies 
of being. 

All this is very fine for the imagination, but has nothing 
for the reason. In the first place, it assumes an insight 
into "how being is made" — a question totally beyond the 
scrutiny of human thought. It assumes, also, that the 
personal character, or, what is the same, the qualities of 
the personal action, of one person can be determined by 
another ; which, as we have seen, is a contradiction. That 
a being of perfect finite nature can be created we do not 
deny, but personal character is self-determined. 



CREATION 151 

Although we may not deny that persons may be cre- 
ated with perfect perceptions of their entire condition 
and relation, so as to be free from error, and with the 
largest freedom to act accordingly, affording the greatest 
natural facility to continue in harmony with these con- 
ditions, yet it cannot be affirmed that these persons can- 
not or will not selfishly choose to enjoy the pleasures and 
powers of their actual selves rather than continue in 
supreme devotion to the ideal. Such an affirmation is 
made upon the assumption that perfect intelligence which 
will preclude error will also preclude willful wrong; 
that there can be no such thing as an entirely willful 
wrong. This is not a merely modern assertion, but it is 
just as absurd, hoary as it is, as any newborn fallacy. A 
person of perfect finite nature cannot choose to enjoy 
his actual powers rather than devote them to loving and 
serving the Infinite, forsooth ? 

The fact must always remain that even to a person 
created with the highest conditioned powers there must 
be unexplored, perhaps ever inscrutable, mysteries in the 
absolutely perfect One. Finite thought finds no parallax 
between the humblest and mightiest conditioned powers 
from which to measure the distance to the unconditioned 
One "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of 
turning." The question is, can the one be created more 
steadfast in his devotion to the perfect One than the 
other? The field for faith must ever abide. Will the 
highest created intelligence make that faith more stead- 
fast? The greatest finite powers may be proportionally 
as great a temptation to their selfish use as the lowly 
capabilities of the humblest person. The pleasure and 
ambition incident to the selfish enjoyment of these lofty 
natures cannot be thought less, in proportion, than those 
of lower types of being. Not less but perhaps more 



152 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

probable is it that they would choose the splendid grati- 
fication of their actual self rather than devotion to the 
ideal. 

Still, it may be argued that in their perfect perception 
of their entire relationship they must be thought incapable 
of error as to the complete advantage of right and the 
disastrous result of wrong. For them to abide in har- 
mony is to enjoy clearly perceived good and to avoid 
self-evident ruin. This reduces their motives to those 
of merely hope and fear ; and not one such person can be 
conscious of security in his devotion to the right were his 
knowledge of results removed. Their security is the 
security of circumstances. Yet self-determined superior- 
ity to circumstances is the exact measure of perfect per- 
sonal security; and it is essential to complete conscious- 
ness of personal freedom and harmony. These requisites 
of a perfect universe and essential conditions to the high- 
est conditioned good must be self-determined; and finite 
self-determination is progress. 

Self-determination of superiority to circumstances, 
superiority to motives of hope and fear, cannot be thought 
possible to conditioned beings except as devotion to right. 
Rising superior to already experienced good for the sake 
of higher communion with infinite perfection is the exer- 
cise of faith — an exercise which confirms the love and 
gives higher determination to personality. Love toward 
a perfect God, whose infinite perfection is believed in, 
and that risks the interest of self-love as incident thereto, 
is a self-determination above known circumstances and 
superior to known satisfactions. Upon this faith in God, 
as the unconditioned perfect, the conditioned person deter- 
mines the secure steadfastness of his love as devotion to 
the perfect, conditioned and unconditioned. 

But where all that a conditioned mind can ever grasp 



CREATION 153 

or commune with is openly and at once perceived the only 
conceivable scope for faith would be for him to break 
away from the pleasurable spontaneities of his circum- 
stances and, for the sake of determining a conscious 
superiority to them, plunge into certain ruin. Thus the 
highest realization of conditioned personality could be 
reached only through disaster. From this eminence a 
devil thus determining in himself a consciousness of 
superiority to hope or fear might truly say : 

That strife 
Was not inglorious, though the event was dire. 

Nor could this supposedly perfect universe of happy utili- 
tarians ever parry his grim sarcasm, "Doth Job serve God 
for naught ?" 

In a word: i. The creation of an unconditioned per- 
son or universe is not possible to thought. 2. The crea- 
tion of a perfect conditioned person or universe would 
be the creation of perfectly self-determined character; 
which is a contradiction. 3. The creation of a person 
or universe" in the highest conditioned perfection implies 
that they cannot determine themselves as anything other 
than their nature, except worse; implies that the danger 
of the abuse of their freedom is canceled by their perfect 
perception of good and ill results. 4. This, again, reduces 
the universe to one in which fear and reward are the 
highest motives; hence not one of the highest moral 
character, nor one of love. In such a universe love can 
exist only as following an instinct or spontaneity; not as 
supreme, self-determined devotement. To thus choose 
to drift spontaneously with their nature has no security 
except devotion to actual self, selfishness. 

It might protect against mere error in judgment, but 
evinces no security against deliberate choice to abuse 
power or privilege. There is nothing to indicate that the 



154 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

choice to pass from pure self-love to selfishness is not 
immanent and easy in the highest, as in the lowest, finite 
person ; and this is the passing from harmony to dishar- 
mony. No matter how nearly infinite the finite persons 
might be created, their free choice to love or refuse to 
love God and each other, to use or abuse their powers, 
is nevertheless an essential condition upon which the 
moral dignity and harmony of the universe depend. 
Nothing can protect the Creator's purpose, the bestowal 
of the highest good of being, from utter defeat if they 
so will. 

Since there is no ground upon which it may be affirmed 
that a self-determining person or universe, created at 
the highest possible point of intelligence and power, 
would be secure against disharmony it must be admitted 
that such cannot be thought the perfect creation ; cannot 
condition a perfect universe. 

Moreover, it must be admitted that disharmony upon 
such conditions must be complete disaster. To sin in 
the light of the highest possible finite intelligence leaves 
no motive nor susceptibility to motive upon which the 
sinner could be recovered. Hence there is nothing to 
prevent the utter defeat and overthrow of the object of 
creation. Their sinning in the midst of the highest finite 
intelligence and motivity exhausts all susceptibility to 
incentives which might induce their recovery; and must 
leave them incapable of honest repentance or gracious 
restoration. Absolutely nothing remains by which the 
utter disintegration of the personal universe can be 
averted save force and fear; and this, as we have seen, 
would be an utter failure of the purpose of love's objec- 
tive determination. 

To' destroy the erring or sinning one by exercise of 
power in any way would make fear of destruction the 



CREATION 155 

highest motive to righteousness among all finite per- 
sons ; would make personal safety the highest good. It 
is needless to argue how impossible it is to instigate love 
in any high degree by fear, but it is perfectly clear that 
a universe in which hope and fear are the highest motives 
can never realize an ideal universe. Under such motives 
perfect finite personality cannot be attained. Though 
created in the highest finite perfection of knowledge and 
power, it would not be a perfect universe the moment its 
security consciously depends upon hope and fear as its 
highest motives. Love would not appear as self-suffi- 
cient, as able to realize its objective ideal or achieve per- 
fect beneficence ; hence, not as the nature of perfect being. 
Moreover, the suspicion that selfishness may be capable 
of greater power and pleasure than love, that it is the 
chief good, would haunt the universe forever — a sus- 
picion which God would appear unable to meet, and love 
unable to allay. Is love the nature of the independent, 
unconditioned, perfect being? Is God the best God that 
might be? Is a love-determined universe the best uni- 
verse? Is the moral authority which love, the divine 
nature, imposes a reality? Does it rightfully dominate 
conscience? May not both the obedient and disobedient 
despise him whom only might "hath made greater"? 
These are questions which dwell in the bosom of that 
suspicion which, unanswered, must eat out the moral 
fiber of the universe. 

But a perfect creation, by love, must not only condition 
a perfect universe, but must imply in case of disharmony 
the least possible suffering of calamitous results; hence, 
we must affirm that — 

The lowest point of intelligence and power at which 
self-determining action can arise is that at which ulti- 
mately perfect dependent personalities should originate. 



156 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

This, in order ( i ) that their disharmonies may have the 
minimum of ill result — capable of inflicting the least pos- 
sible harm upon themselves or each other; (2) that they 
may have the widest field of corrective conditions, and 
the largest susceptibility to remedial motives. 

At this lowest point of intelligence and power their 
errors and moral antagonisms are less potent to inflict 
woe upon themselves or the world. Their experience of 
the ills of disharmony will thus find them in the conditions 
most susceptible to its corrective tendency. The regret- 
ful experience of its pains and disadvantages becomes the 
opportunity for higher motives and advanced moral wis- 
dom. And thus the largest scope for moral recuperation 
and remedial measures is secured. But were persons cre- 
ated at the highest stage of finite intelligence and power, 
the probability of disharmony would be as great, if not 
greater. If they chose disharmony their power for evil 
would be the maximum, while the highest incitement to 
harmony would be exhausted. No remedy remains but 
punishment of the offenders, no higher motive to the 
unoffending than fear, and that in its most selfish form. 
The highest created heaven of such beings could become 
at any time an irretrievable hell. 

Since, then, a perfect universe is one which cannot be 
created perfect, nor forced into perfection, but must be 
self-determined and therefore must be progressively de- 
veloped, the created conditions upon which it is deter- 
mined must be regarded perfect in that, while adequate 
to the end, they afford the minimum of ill and the maxi- 
mum of good which are incident to> the process. The 
perfection of creation is in its affording perfect conditions 
upon which a perfect universe can be evolved from the 
lowest stage, in order that every irreparable ill may be 
avoided, every abuse corrected, every wound healed, every 



CREATION 157 

error eliminated, and every disharmony remedied by ris- 
ing to higher harmonies. All this is implied in love, ever 
evolving its conditioning activities along the lines of 
holiness and benevolence. 

The divine benevolence can find complete determination 
only in a progressive creation which founds dependent 
personality at the lowest degree of intelligence and power 
at which personality can arise. Although the errors of 
dependent persons in such a deep vale of ignorance and 
weakness may be many and great, those errors are schools 
of instruction in the experience of the bad tendency of 
wrong and the excellence of right. This, too, with little 
or no guilt on the part of the erring ones. 

Moreover, their experience thus gained is the greatest 
possible in proportion to their intelligence in other re- 
spects. Thus their innocently gained knowledge of the 
merit of right and the demerit of wrong is in the greatest 
possible proportion to their general stage of development ; 
and by so much are they proportionately better armed 
against the liability to intentional wrong than if created 
in the full-orbed powers of finite being. 

Further, in the event of their committing intentional 
wrong they experience in this lowly state a correspond- 
ingly low degree of guilt. The turpitude of their sin is 
the minimum of moral evil which may result from wrong 
intention; and the depraving influence w T hich such guilt 
may impose upon the general character is the least 
possible. 

Added to these considerations, it is evident the power 
to harm each other must be of the lowest practicable 
degree. It must have the least subtlety to beguile, the 
least skill to injure, the least efficiency to* dominate the 
actions and interests of others. It may, indeed, have 
more of the brute, but far less of the fiend. 



158 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

The susceptibility to recovery by renouncing wrong as 
such, and the devotement to right under these circum- 
stances, is the greatest possible. Such recovery comes 
to the erring or sinning when they have sustained, rela- 
tively, the slightest degree of damage to their natures, 
and when there is before them, relatively, the largest 
term of discipline and development in which to become 
confirmed in devotion to right, to undo the damage of past 
wrong, and develop the greatest degree of adaptation and 
habit in righteous being. True, the process is beset with 
great ignorance and attended by many failures and lapses, 
but the will is sovereign and efficient in the moral inten- 
tions of the most ignorant as well as in those of the most 
enlightened of finite persons. The mistake, the lapse, the 
fall, occurring within the arms of that benevolence which 
provides that it shall take place in the simpler and least 
harmful conditions, encourages to righteous endeavor and 
affords corrective wisdom. 

Ignorance and weakness, from the above considera- 
tions, stand out as important conditions which love im- 
poses as essential to the determination of perfect finite 
personality. By means of error the moral discipline 
gained is immeasurably greater, in proportion to the 
degree of intelligence and power, in a person who has 
been progressively developed to a high stage of capability 
than it can possibly be in one who is created at once at 
the same altitude of natural powers. Though he be weak 
and ignorant as a peasant he may love with the sincerity 
of a seraph. This preponderance of the moral over the 
natural personality facilitates the spiritual determination 
of the person vastly in advance of his formulated knowl- 
edge ; and by so much is his arrival at the point of moral 
security in advance of the attainment of his largest scope 
for freedom. Acids, razors, and engines, in the hands 



CREATION 159 

of children, are implements of destruction, but in the 
hands of the skilled and strong are useful instruments. 
So, also, great intelligence and power, in the hands of 
infantile moral development, would be weapons of de- 
struction, destructive forces, but wielded by securely self- 
determined love are instruments and forces of good. 
Hence, the greatest preponderance of devotion to the 
good over capability for evil is gained by a person or 
universe created in the lowest conditions possible for 
moral development. 

Moreover, the corrective discipline of error, by its pains 
and inconveniences, which result from collision with all- 
conditioning love, must tend to dissuade from intentional 
wrongdoing, deter the rise of sin. And should inten- 
tional sin arise, its self-defeat is facilitated by its blunder- 
ing incoherence when ignorantly or feebly perpetrated. 

Thus ignorance and error have a mission in the natural 
world, affording conditions to the earliest realization of 
the harmony, largest freedom, and security which must 
characterize the perfect universe. Not only is it true 
that "to err is human," but to err is natural. "For the 
creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but 
by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the crea- 
tion itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of 
corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children 
of God." 

This is the true "bitter-sweet" doctrine. It differs 
from the doctrine, so called, which includes sin, inten- 
tional wrong, as natural. Sin is thus made a necessity 
to the universe, and God is under obligation to it for the 
realization of his purposes. This we repudiate wholly 
as having no foundation or natural place in the evolution 
of love. Sin is unnatural, and must be disposed of as 
such. But error is naturally incident to the dependent 



160 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

objects of love's evolution; which conditions the rise of 
moral consciousness in them at the lowest possible stage 
of personal intelligence and power. This is the only sense 
in which there is a divinely authorized "ministry" of ig- 
norance, weakness, and pain; and this is the sense in 
which ignorance, and feebleness of mind and body, and 
an environment of hardship are imposed by creative per- 
fection as conditions to the development of perfect finite 
personality. 

The greatest of innocent errors is the hope of finding 
a permanent finite ideal; the pursuing a finite ideal, ex- 
pecting it to be a satisfying perfection, in kind and de- 
gree, when once realized. Whether it be a babe, weary 
of its rattlebox, but supremely devoted to a newly pos- 
sessed hobbyhorse, or a millionaire devoted to the acqui- 
sition of additional millions, the story is the same. The 
conquest of the world, realized, is not the ideal for which 
the conqueror weeps. "We gather shells from youth to 
age; and then we leave them, like a child." The worn- 
out pleasure-seeker is puzzled to> understand how it was 
that he could have pursued with such intense ardor the 
objects for which now he has only satiety and loathing. 
The secret is simply this in every case: his love sought 
satisfaction in only finite ideals. 

But even this greatest of errors has its mission. The 
cloying sweets, the weariness of toys, the disappointment 
of wealth, pleasure, pain, teach that "One is good, that is 
God." There is one perfect — the ever-actualized, infinite 
ideal. This alone can afford the absolute authority of 
the ideal, and hold by its infinite charm and motives a 
steadfastly progressive, eternal devotement of a free uni- 
verse. "Love is its own reward," and to interact in pro- 
gressive companionship, by supreme devotion to God, can 
alone be to finite persons their supreme good. 



CREATION 161 

To attain to freely self-determined security in con- 
scious harmony with him is to achieve, incidentally, an 
ideal selfhood which is the goal of a pure self-love. But 
we can affirm, this is an actualized ideal self in kind, only. 
It realizes unwavering security in the largest scope of 
finite freedom; but is just now wholly fitted to achieve 
the unqualified good of progressive companionship with 
God. 

Naturally irretrievable wrong can be only in the case 
of those persons who cling to error, though conscious of 
its erroneous nature. To correct the supreme wrong of 
supreme devotion to finite objects, when its erroneousness 
is disclosed, is to restrict it to the category of innocent 
error; which does no violence to the persons' essential 
adjustment to the Creator's purpose. But to indulge the 
practice of wrong for the enjoyment of its temporary 
interest is to do intentional wrong, is to break with the 
natural harmony, and pervert all his natural conditions 
by self-determined devotion to one's actual self. This is 
selfishness, antagonism to love. A machine in which 
all the centers of motion are in true adjustment is essen- 
tially harmonious, and will eventually wear down and 
smooth off the rough and uneven surfaces and edges of 
cogs and pulleys, and finally wear to perfect and perma- 
nent harmony. So, also, supreme love to God and mutual 
love among themselves is the true adjustment of depend- 
ent persons which constitutes the essential harmony of 
the world. If this harmony is maintained the errors and 
misfortunes incident to a weak and ignorant world are 
superficial inequalities and rough edges of conditioned 
life which will, eventually, be worn away, and their ill 
results neutralized by the harmonious tendency of love's 
adjustments. Thus the creation perfectly conditions de- 
pendent persons in essential harmony which, if main- 



162 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

tained, will constantly develop more intimate and elabor- 
ate harmony with God's perfect action, and ultimately 
realize security in the perfection of the universal personal 
adjustment of finite with infinite being. 

The chief difference between the machine and the 
universe is that adjustment in one is maintained by its 
maker, while in the personal universe the essential adjust- 
ment is only conditioned, by the Creator, but is determined 
for himself by each dependent person. Because of this 
self-determination in each person the superficial inequali- 
ties and errors resulting from: ignorance and weakness 
are not the only disturbances to which the world is liable. 

The Preternatural. — We use the term simply in the 
sense of "aside from natural," or perverted nature. The 
power of finite persons to change their adjustment to- 
ward God and toward their fellow men, and abuse and 
pervert their own natures and natural relations, enables 
them to render the entire scheme of their conditions un- 
natural. Fire affords conditions to comfort, health, 
manufacture, commerce, and wealth, but if abused affords 
the most horrible conditions of disaster and torture. So 
the Creator's love affords the conditions to the determina- 
tion of the greatest good, but if abused, perverted by mal- 
adjustment, these conditions may be made vast organized 
forces for evil. But the change is not in divine love, the 
action which establishes natural conditions. Natural con- 
ditions are modified by the false self-adjustment of de- 
pendent persons. Hence, if restoration to the natural is 
ever achieved by such persons it must be by their chang- 
ing their attitude to one of true harmony with the 
creation. 

By self-perversion dependent persons may induce illu- 
sions which obscure cardinal facts, although disaster and 
defeat frequently recall them to a sense of these facts. 



CREATION 163 

They may curse nature and fight "natural law," but 
natural forces will keep right on, maintaining the fact 
of the Creator's independence. Neither can they always 
avert their attention from the fact, conscience, the au- 
thority of the perfect which morally conditions their 
intentions until, "in their thoughts, they accuse each 
other," according to this criterion. But because of their 
self-determining freedom it must be thought possible for 
them to so pervert and debase their personality as to 
become unsusceptible to the beneficent incitements of 
love as expressed in the natural world. 

So elaborately organized, complex, and fascinating 
may selfish forms of pleasure, culture, and enterprise 
become as to mislead or beguile sincere minds for indefi- 
nite periods of time. The willful wrong of one age may 
become the conventional habit of succeeding ages, and 
the selfish excesses of one generation mold the natural 
instincts or establish the tastes of their descendants. The 
universal prevalence of selfish desire and practice may 
establish a general devotion to actual self which, in its 
most alleviating forms of utilitarianism, may hopelessly 
displace all faith in the ideal, and discard all devotion to 
abstract truth as visionary and fanatical. Utilitarianism 
in every form may, within the benevolent forbearance of 
love's natural conditions, construct alleviations to this 
riot of selfishness. It may boast of this as chief good, 
forgetting or ignoring that all its benignities are owing 
to the benevolence of the Creator ; and that its garnished 
thrift of readjusted selfishness is only tolerable because it 
is permitted to nestle in the bosom of love's forbearance. 
Thus dependent persons may condition themselves by 
modifying their natural susceptibilities and external con- 
ditions, totally obscuring all incitement or motivity to 
loving devotion to the perfect. 



164 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

If this obscuration of susceptibility and incitement to 
the ideal fail to become total, it must be because the 
rational demand for the Independent — the actual experi- 
ence of dependence and the authority of the perfect in 
conscience — asserts itself more or less in the midst 
of all finite perversion and sham. Their essential depend- 
ence upon the Independent, demonstrated ever and anon 
in the self-defeat of selfishness, ever reminds dependent 
persons of the self-sustained independence of natural 
forces. Likewise the persistent authority of the holy, the 
perfect, can never be bribed to approve wrong intention 
in the personal conscience. But in personal self-deter- 
mination there may be the entire perversion of all per- 
ception of the real good, and total obliteration of its 
motivity to incite love toward the Creator. Moreover, 
the prosperity of selfishness must tend to establish a sin- 
cere conviction that the Independent is indifferent to 
good or evil, and that perfection is but a chimera, while 
the bitterness of conditions as perverted by selfishness 
tends to obscure the benevolence of the Creator, and even 
suggests a question of his existence. 

Human history illustrates these implications of possible 
distortion and defeat of natural conditions by self-deter- 
mined devotion to actual self ; that is to say, by selfishness. 
When devotement to actual self is thus decided upon, all 
the natural methods of divine love's interpretation are 
refracted like rays of light when passing through a dense 
medium. Not only the secret feelings of individuals, but 
often the philosophies, enterprises, and collective senti- 
ment of mankind, evince their perversion. Their desire 
for God is only a desire for an almighty convenience, and 
when this convenience is not apparent their faith in the 
benevolence, or even existence, of God is shaken. 

Selfishness demands that divine action shall give up its 



CREATION 165 

ideal, and devote its energies to mere almsgiving to man 
as he actually is — claims that to bless himself as he actu- 
ally is, without reference to what he ought to become, is 
man's first right; and to extort benefits from his fellow 
men is a proper use of his intelligence and power. This 
is human welfare as viewed by the philosophies of selfish- 
ness. Hence, they complain that human life is "the worst 
possible" because of the discomforts experienced by actual 
self. The perfection of self, toward which love con- 
ditions all human striving, and to achieve which any 
sacrifice it demands of actual self is small, is ignored. 
Since the evolution of divine love conditions all persons 
with reference to their subjecting the actual to the ideal, 
the friction and hardship which come to man by his mis- 
appropriating his conditions are beyond computation. 
The spleen of a Cain is nothing but devotion to the actual 
self which recognizes God as only a servitor to selfishness. 
Idolatry is but the apotheosis of actual, imperfect self. 
Its gods are merely large men as men actually are, not 
as they may and ought to become by devotement to that 
ideal manhood which is authorized by the actual perfec- 
tion of the unconditioned Person, God. 

Pessimists think this the worst possible world because 
the satisfaction of their present actual self is their cri- 
terion of good; and because our natural conditions are 
not favorable to selfish satisfaction. The atheist insists 
that if the world were the creation of a perfect being it 
and our race would have been created in the highest fi- 
nite perfection; and, hence, would be perfectly happy. 
In his view actual being, of any type, is the criterion of 
what is, or ought to be good. All these views are from 
the standpoint of selfishness, which only wishes to place 
the actual, imperfect self in a position where it may be 
wholly a recipient, and but selfishly a factor, of benefi- 



166 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

cence. In a word, they ignore the need of a progressive 
actualization of the ideal in order that personal perfection 
may be actually attained and forever secured. They fail 
to recognize that neither power, knowledge, nor pleasure, 
but love, is the nature of perfect action, and alone can 
yield a perfect universe. 

Because love is love and is capable of mercy it has 
conditioned the continuance of our selfish race. Nay, 
more, these merciful conditions in which sin is permitted 
to make a full demonstration of itself — conditions which 
can afford correction, discipline, and recovery to the sin- 
ner — these conditions afford at least temporary pros- 
perity to sin and success to selfishness. Nothing in our 
world, it is true, seems more successful than selfishness, 
nothing more jubilant and arrogant than the triumphs 
of selfish devotement. On this account the benevolence 
of divine love becomes the opportunity of sin. Benevo- 
lence is made, by man, to abet selfishness. Love becomes 
the servant of its enemy, and its activities are used as the 
instruments of his crimes. Not only does it afford scope 
for sin's continuance, but encourages it. That "the good- 
ness of God leadeth to repentance" is overlooked. It 
tends to establish the conviction in the race that the crea- 
tion is indifferent, perhaps favorable to- selfishness. Thus 
the determination of the Creator's benevolence affords 
conditions, for a period at least, for the prosperity of the 
wicked. Nothing but faith in God prevents the best men 
from conceding the ultimate triumph of selfishness. How 
often in the history of man have thoughtful persons ex- 
pressed their despair of the ultimate triumph of right, 
how often deplored the triumph of wrong — "Truth for- 
ever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne" ! 

Supernatural intervention is here irresistibly forced 
upon us as an implication of conditioning love. It is here 



CREATION 167 

we are compelled to recognize that, in order to condition 
the realization of a perfect universe, love must evolve 
other and further than natural incitements to devotion 
to the perfect. // the Unite universe, or any person or 
portion of it, is preter naturally conditioned by the general 
defection, so as to be destitute of the means which natu- 
rally lead to devotement to the perfect, there is no re- 
course but by supernatural means. The least and lowest 
form of action which love can take is to be just. But jus- 
tice would require that the Creator must, in this juncture, 
cease to tolerate the existence of persons who cause or 
maintain these preternatural conditions ; or else he must 
supplement the perverted, and hence inefficient, natural 
conditions with supernatural conditions to ultimate har- 
mony. Love must end them in some way when conditions 
become so entirely preternatural as to collide with the 
independence, eclipse the moral authority, and pervert 
the benevolence of God. In justice, love must permit the 
preternatural conditions which finite wickedness and 
weakness have established to work their own immediate 
destruction; or, in mercy, it must reassert and maintain 
conditions to perfection by supernatural intervention. 
The former would be a surrender of the object of crea- 
tion ; the latter would be directly in the line of love's evo- 
lution of a perfect universe. 

It is easy to see what divine love will do. The whole 
matter may be stated in a sentence, to wit : The natural 
conditions of dependent persons, which express to them 
the independence, moral authority, and benevolent pur- 
pose of the Creator, are superseded by the preternatural 
conditions which these persons, by their self-determined 
perversity, have interposed, and which may justly be 
permitted to condition their self-destruction, and which 
can be avoided only by a merciful supernatural disclosure 



168 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

by which divine love will make good to them the original 
conditions to the determination of their perfection. 

It is not, indeed, a question of what divine love can do, 
but what love, in its objective determination, must and 
will do. When the free abuses of dependent persons con- 
struct in them a false nature, and around them a false 
environment, divine love must maintain the conditions 
to finite perfection by transcending nature. Were our 
philosophy of creative, or natural, forces merely one of 
impersonal dynamics we should be puzzled, indeed, to 
find a basis for the supernatural. But as "creative force" 
stands, in our thought, for the action of an independent 
person whose nature is infinite love we have no such 
puzzle on our hands. We simply inquire, What must 
divine action, in devotement to perfect being, do? When 
human perversity misappropriates the benevolence of love 
by making it the occasion for selfishness ; and prosperous 
selfishness encourages the conviction that the creation is 
favorable, or at least indifferent, to it ; or resulting adver- 
sity begets despair, what manifestation does the evolution 
of love imply? This is the whole question; and there 
can be but one reply : The Supernatural ! 

Does this argue, after all, that the creation of depend- 
ent persons at the lowest point of intelligence and power 
at which self-determination may arise is imperfect? By 
no means! The impairment of their natural conditions 
is not the impairment of the divine action in nature, but 
their self-determined abuse of that divine action. As 
observed before, their freedom is the only menace to es- 
sential harmony, and at first glance might seem a defect 
in the creation, but is, in fact, an excellence — the grand 
excellence which constitutes them persons, distinguishes 
the objective universe, and renders possible the eternal 
companionship of finite with infinite being. The perfec- 



CREATION 169 

tion of creation stands out, also, in that it is the basis upon 
which dependent persons, through a schooling of weak- 
ness and innocent error, may avoid sin, intentional wrong, 
and determine their perpetual harmony, largest freedom, 
and perfect security. For aught we know, our own race 
furnishes the only class of persons who have failed on 
that basis ; and possibly more of them than we are aware 
of have maintained or recovered essential harmony with- 
out definite intelligence of supernatural motives; that is, 
by renunciation of selfishness. 

Further, by its lowest conditions of personal self-deter- 
mination it affords the whole determination and defeat 
of disharmony, caused by either error or design, at the 
lowest stage of its power to inflict evil upon the world. 
The earlier demonstration of evil affords the earlier inter- 
vention of the supernatural. This also affords, in the case 
of the willful sinner, the greatest opportunity that wrong- 
doing may, either in natural or supernatural conditions, 
prove self-corrective and not retributive. The possible 
determination of steadfastness in love toward God is at 
the earliest, and possible incorrigibility at the latest, stage 
of personal development. 

That this supernatural intervention, as seen above, has 
an object altogether worthy of it needs no argument. 

If the question of the form of supernatural disclosure 
is raised, by way of objection to miracles, for example, 
then we must admit the following affirmations: 1. The 
only respect in which we can affirm that the activities of 
God in nature cannot be changed is in their essential 
character , as conditioning the free determination of 
human perfection by evincing the independence, the per- 
fect moral authority, and the changeless holiness and 
mercy of God. 2. Any supposable revealment of super- 
natural motives must reiterate or accord with these. 3. 



i;o IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

The phenomenal form in which it may vary from the 
natural order of phenomena, as perceived by those to 
whom it is given, does no violence to nature, but dis- 
tinguishes it as supernatural. This is merely a question 
of method and adaptation to the persons addressed ; and 
disbelief in miracles, regarded as mere departures from 
the usual order of God's action in natural phenomena, 
is but a quibble. 4. If such departure reiterates and em- 
phasizes the essential conditions expressed in nature it 
bears prima facie evidence of its validity. 

In the conditions which divine love maintains in all 
its objective action, natural and supernatural, it makes 
good to finite persons, who are the objects of its effort, 
its own independence, its devotion to the perfect, its 
beneficence, or supreme good, and sacredly recognizes the 
self-determining freedom of dependent persons. In these 
conditions it affords the means of their supreme devotion 
to the perfect, and their realization of companionship with 
God. Pressing forward to the realization of its objective 
ideal, the perfect universe, love must be thought as length- 
ening and widening its benevolence until its majestic ideal 
is realized. Its benevolent conditioning of progressive 
life renders evil corrective, not necessarily retributive. If 
it shall ever become retributive it must be by fixed deter- 
mination of the wrongdoer who, though convinced of 
the excellence of love and the despicable nature of selfish- 
ness, persists in his ill-chosen course. This he may do 1 , 
notwithstanding infinite love; and divine force cannot 
intervene to save him, nor to inflict upon him aught but 
his own self-determined perversion, his maladjustments 
to a love-conditioned world. This is but to say that love 
cannot be thought to reverse its own nature and all its 
evolution in order to avoid a collision which must be 
ruinous to the sinner who incorrigibly rejects or perverts 



CREATION 171 

its saving conditions. Incorrigible determination in self- 
ishness is not only the evidence of self-induced limita- 
tions of one's personality, but is the continued process of 
limitation, until personality may be sunken into the limi- 
tations of a brute, fiend, or thing. This matter, however, 
is treated more fully in a later chapter. It is noticed here 
only as a corollary from the progressive achievement of a 
perfect universe. 

That an independent being determines himself as infi- 
nite love, and projects a universe which in its progressive 
development settles every question, casts off every cru- 
dity, wears out every abuse, outlives all antagonism, out- 
grows all but necessary conditions, and persists, composed 
of persons fitted by the highest conditioned self-deter- 
mination to be the finite counterpart of infinite love ; that 
eternity shall be given to the unembarrassed unfolding of 
love's resources of goodness, power, and glory, in the 
harmonies of the progressive finite with the perfect infi- 
nite — is the only self-sustaining philosophy of the uni- 
verse. 

The divine conception, or ideal, of conditioned being 
having been wrought by man's reciprocal action into the 
perfect self-consciousness of freedom, harmony, and se- 
curity, God will, doubtless, continue his altruistic life, as 
"from the beginning," Creator, Upholder, Revealer, and 
Benefactor, without exhaustion of resources or arrest of 
finite progress. The structure and history of the uni- 
verse, physical, mental, and moral, continually rounding 
into a synthesis of love, will continue to illustrate the 
infinite egoism and limitless altruistic freedom of God. 

Companionship is the term which perhaps best ex- 
presses these implications of love — companionship of the 
finite with the infinite. This companionship, thus seen to 
be the bestowal of the highest conditioned good, is implied 



172 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

as the purpose of the creation. Since companionship is 
the first form, of relationship, as subsisting between the 
absolute and the relative consciousness in God, it must 
be thought as underlying and conditioning all other rela- 
tions which arise in the process of conditioned existence. 
Hence, this companionship is prime motive to finite minds, 
and must be the criterion by which to estimate the mean- 
ing and value of finite being. 

When we think of the Infinite Person seeking to bestow 
an endlessly progressive companionship, we are hurried 
on to the conception of a universe of dependent persons, 
in endless variety of powers, who, sometime and some- 
where, may know and enjoy God as nearly as friend does 
friend; reflecting in relative detail the imaged phases of 
the absolute nature. And as the love of finite persons, 
reciprocating that of the infinite, shall develop the being 
and doing of eternity, faithful in a few things or rulers 
over many, the splendors of love's evolution will vindicate 
the creation, and prove to all that the greatest of blessings 
is being. 



CHAPTER II 
The Genesis of Evil 

An enemy hath done this. — Jesus. 

The preceding chapter closed with the thought of 
companionship — companionship of finite beings with the 
Infinite Being — as the method of the supreme good, the 
purpose of creation, the realization of a perfect universe. 
Instead of absorption of the finite by the infinite, which 
is the outcome of pantheism, we find ever-progressive 
companionship of finite persons with the infinite to be 
the outcome of the evolution of love. We recognize this 
as the divine conception, the divine ideal, of conditioned 
being — God's finite ideal actualized by finite beings. 

We recognize that, upon the conditions which divine 
love evolves, dependent persons may attain a development 
which will be perfectly free, except in so far as their 
existence depends on God. This freedom will be a self- 
determining which is conscious of no restraint from with- 
out, but will be secure in the consciousness of perfect 
intention, holiness. Perfect intention, the holy quality 
of love, will assure the harmony of all. Perfect com- 
panionship implies perfect mutual confidence as to each 
other's intention. It can be perfectly self-conscious only 
in freedom. Security in this free companionship is the 
grand problem of free being, yet this security is essen- 
tial to that companionship which realizes ideal being. 
The perfect personal universe, free as caprice, harmoni- 
ous as unity, and secure as fate, is what we must recog- 
nize as essential in the ideal universe which love seeks 
to realize in its evolution. 

This ideal universe carried out practically will achieve 
173 



174 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

the highest conditioned good. This good must be thought 
such that each person, individually, and all persons, uni- 
versally, may make their being better upon the whole 
than nonbeing; that their existence may be a positive 
blessing ; and that failure in this can come about only by 
their own determination. This is the lowest and least 
degree of good which can be thought in accordance with 
love as the nature of the force which has chosen to evolve 
the dependent world. Conscious that love, his nature, 
is perfect action, God chooses to evolve from it the con- 
ditions upon which free, though dependent, persons may 
determine dependent perfection in themselves, and thereby 
determine a perfect universe. 

The teleological character of the world which love 
evolves is in this choice. It seeks the perfection of finite 
being as a requisite end. In this choice, also, is implied 
the immortality of all persons who cannot find in a limited 
term of life the conditions upon which they can determine 
their perfection, and achieve that degree of good which 
such perfection can attain. Since perfect benevolence is 
love's motive for creation, and the bestowment of the 
highest good, perfect beneficence, is its purpose, it is 
clear that their realization is guaranteed in love as con- 
sciously perfect action ; guaranteed by its conscious ability 
to afford the highest conditionable good to dependent 
beings. 

As finite persons are self-determining, within their 
conditions, it follows that their highest good can be deter- 
mined by their free conformity to those conditions of their 
being which love evolves. The faculties and susceptibili- 
ties with which they are endowed and the environment 
in which they are placed constitute part of their con- 
ditions, and are means and instruments which creative 
love furnishes. The proper use of these means and instru- 



THE GENESIS OF EVIL 175 

ments is in achieving the excellence and satisfaction of 
their being, and, hence, are elements of their good. This 
use is in their true personal adjustment in interaction with 
the Creator. 

The benevolence of the Creator appears in the fact 
that the highest good of dependent persons results from a 
true use of these elements. If in this use their being 
prove better, more desirable, than nonexistence, then their 
being is a good. Further, if by ignorant misuse of them- 
selves or of their environment they debase these con- 
ditions which love has posited, and yet may determine a 
life which, upon the whole, is better than nonbeing, then 
their being is a beneficence, a blessing. Yet again, if 
they, or others, by willful abuse, may pervert and de- 
prave themselves and the general environment, and yet 
find it possible to determine reform and ultimately find 
their way to a true use of their conditions to the extent 
that their being is, upon the whole, better than nonexist- 
ence, then is their being a good so far as the Creator is 
responsible. And in so far as their existence, in either 
of these cases, is more desirable than nonexistence, just 
so far does the graciousness of the creative choice tran- 
scend justice. 

If, on the other hand, finite persons should realize, in 
their use of these elements, an undesirable existence, 
worthless upon the whole to them, then their being is not a 
good. Or if it prove worse than worthless their being is 
a positive evil. Further, if by misuse of themselves or 
their environment they realize that their life is not worth 
living, then is their being a positive evil. Hence, evil is 
that practical result which would arise either through 
failure of a Creator to condition good to finite persons, 
or by their misuse of their conditions. 

But since love is the nature of that action which con- 



176 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

ditions the existence of finite persons, it implies that the 
true use of these conditions by them must result in their 
good. If, therefore, this good upon the whole is thwarted 
or prevented in any degree it must be by their determina- 
tion — their free misuse, abuse, of their conditions. This 
practical result which renders finite being a doubtful good, 
or even worse than nonbeing, is what, in the largest sense, 
we term evil. 

The questions which arise regarding evil are forced 
upon us by the experience of evil as an historical fact. 

But, aside from this fact, the evolution of love by con- 
ditioning the existence of free beings consistently implies 
the liability of the abuse of those conditioned by the self- 
same free self-determination which constitutes them per- 
sons. Hence, evil which must result from this abuse is a 
question which must be met. 

Up to this point in our outline the evolution of love 
has disclosed a Creator and creation that are wholly good. 
But now right across the path of this development there 
opens to our thought a chasm of well-nigh infinite terror ; 
and in both finite consciousness and human history arises 
the appalling fact of evil. 

This fact imposes two leading questions which demand 
solution. The first is, Hozv does evil arise in a universe 
which, originally } is wholly good? The second is, How 
are the difficulties which evil presents to be met and over- 
come by love, so as to realise perfect benevolence; that 
is, so as to accomplish a degree of good to finite beings, 
each and all, which is sufficient to justify the creation; 
even more, to actualize an ideal universe? More suc- 
cinctly, How does love in its evolution proceed to deter- 
mine perfect benevolence, nothzvithstanding evil? These 
questions make up "the problem of evil.' , The first which 
confronts us, then, in the solution of this problem, is — 



THE GENESIS OF EVIL 177 

The genesis of evil. How can evil arise in a universe C 
which is wholly good? 

There is nowhere discernible an original germ, element, 
or factor of evil in the divine nature or its evolution. 
There can be no evil in this world except by the disor- 
dering of good elements; and this disordering must 
come through the misadjustment of themselves to all-con- 
ditioning love by dependent persons. The notion of a 
conflict of good and evil, as eternal forces, is a hoary 
myth. That evil is an "original principle" is a crude 
assumption. 

To define evil as being a free perversion of self-love, 
which disorders good elements by wrong adjustment of 
personal nature and relationship, resulting in dispropor- 
tionate use, that is, abuse, takes up all there is in the 
notion or knowledge of evil. This definition contains V" 
full account of the genesis of evil in a universe which is 
originally good throughout. The whole conflict betwixt 
good and evil is a question of the right adjustment of 
persons — within themselves, each, and among themselves, 
all — and the resulting use or abuse of faculties and sus- 
ceptibilities which are good in themselves. 

If we contemplate a person in process of sinless devel- 
opment we must see in his conditions these phases of 
love's evolution ; we must see him as the impersonation, 
the personal enactment, of these definitions: 1. Love is 
devotion to the realization of ideals. 2. Self-love is de- 
votion to the realization of an ideal self. 3. Ideal being 
is an imperative criterion for actual finite being. 4. 
Love's actualization of absolute perfection in the inde- 
pendent being, God, is the source of love's authority in 
the ideal as the criterion of dependent being. 5. Faith 
is that supreme confidence in love's ideal, the truth, which 
subjects the actual to the ideal in all self-determination. 



178 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

This impersonation, though finite, is an ego who is 
capable of entire benevolence, unselfishness. He is his 
best self in being his best for others. Losing his life he 
finds it. By intentional conformity to the ideal he is 
holy. In practical conformity to his ideal he is wholly 
benevolent. 

History records one such man, at least — the Man of 
Nazareth. His undeviating subjection of actual self, 
amid boundless provocation to the contrary, was faith — 
that perfect faith "which works by love" ; the practical 
subservience to an all-dominating, though unseen ideal; 
the actualization of all that is i 'hoped for" in a pure self- 
love which, "for the joy that was set before him, endured 
. the cross, despising its shame." Even if the world could 
be persuaded that this record is mythical, its portrayal 
of these characteristics as the requisites of a perfect man 
— requisites to a life which is wholly good — reflects the 
deepest convictions of human consciousness. The readi- 
ness with which sincere thought, everywhere, yields the 
first place to this man — over all heroes, real or fictitious 
— is but the common acknowledgment that his was a 
truly adjusted life; that if all dependent persons were 
like him in their self-adjustment the universe would be 
wholly good. 

The law of universal adjustment is devotement to per- 
fection of being; the conformity of dependent persons to 
the independent. It is the principle which the Stoics 
dimly apprehended in their "conformity to nature." But 
when we recognize nature as being the systematic activi- 
ties of divine love which constitute the conditions upon 
which dependent beings develop themselves we recognize 
it as personal interaction, companionship, of finite with 
the infinite, the dependent with the independent. This is 
only stating that as law which is the spontaneity of love 



THE GENESIS OF EVIL 179 

as action — the actualization of conditioned perfection by- 
finite persons. The whole philosophy of being, as in- 
volved and evolved by love, is expressed in this law. 
Reality is action, action is life, perfectly adjusted life 
is love, and love is devotement to the realization of 
perfect being. The practical evolution of progressive 
being according to this law shows that self-love, and love 
toward fellow beings, and supreme love to God are sub- 
jectively one. They are identically devotement to perfec- 
tion of being. 

Pure self-love, though necessarily the first development 
of love in a progressive being, eventually develops love 
to fellow beings and to God. Hence, it naturally evolves 
harmonious universal adjustment. This is to say, that 
the harmony of the personal universe is not dependent 
upon a theoretic knowledge, in each person, of the rela- 
tions of his being or of the nature of God, but depends 
upon the instinctive prompting of self-love. Universal 
harmony does not depend upon a high degree of intelli- 
gence, but may be spontaneously evolved by self-love. It 
spontaneously prompts a pure, though ignorant, being 
to seek to realize his best possible self. 

The fact of conscious existence gives birth to self-love ; 
the fact of dependence upon others and the fact of inter- 
dependence with others lead to the reciprocal adjustment 
of self-love; and the fact of the dependence of all gives 
the sense of common dependence upon a common inde- 
pendent ; the fact of the independent is the fact of God. 
Dependence upon this implied fact, the independent, is 
the simplest form of faith. And faith is the condition 
out of which love spontaneously arises. 

My experience of an abiding interacting force in my 
physique, consciousness, sensation, perception, reason, 
feelings, and moral sense gives me the constant basis 



180 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

upon which I achieve the claims and aspirations of self- 
love. Interacting with the activities thus given in my 
nature, I develop a personal egoism in the direction of 
self-love, and find by experience that they are, each and 
all, factors of good in me. Not only do I find a resulting 
good, but also a constantly enlarging conception of higher 
good than as yet attained. I am "saved by hope" from 
satisfaction with present good and my present self, and 
am prompted to the attainment of higher good and a 
nobler personality. Thus, self-love instigates progressive 
development. 

Experience of the past assures me that this hoped 
good must be realized, if at all, by my personal develop- 
ment into it ; that it must come to> me in the form of en- 
larged capabilities and diminished limitations. Thus, 
naturally, there arises spontaneously in the vision of 
self-love a conception of what manner of being I desire, 
may, and ought to become. This is my ideal self. Per- 
sons may be ignorant, crude, and weak, but all who have 
a definite consciousness of themselves do have and use, 
however unscientifically, the facts, being, self-love, and 
an ideal, or best, self. This best self, which aspires to 
association with the perfect, is chief motive to self-love 
in a rightly adjusted progressive being. It is this to 
which self-love is devoted. 

A perfect self, within my conditions, is an object to 
which I may be devoted consistently with all other right- 
ful objects. Love never asks of me real self-degradation 
for the sake of another. The development of self-love, 
in that it ever seeks to realize perfection, is one with pure 
love. In it is nothing derogatory to others, but, on the 
contrary, it finds its best disposition toward others in 
being its best self. Seeking the highest possible egoism., 
it realizes the greatest possible altruism. Pure self-love, 



THE GENESIS OF EVIL 181 

in a dependent person, gives birth to pure love toward 
others. Or, what is the same, devotion to the achieve- 
ment of a perfect self spontaneously loves others ; because 
love and self-love are subjectively one. 

But this same instinctive self-love must practically lead 
to the recognition of self-love in others as the primary 
right and guiding devotement of their self-determina- 
tion. And its natural benevolence must realize in them 
a love for each other. Their interdependence in attaining 
the practical interests of self-love must, in a practical 
way, develop and crystallize as the habit of their being and 
the central basis of individual and universal good. That 
which intuitively holds sacred the rights of self-love, in 
all their relations to each other, must recognize its iden- 
tity with pure love; its identity with unselfish devotion 
to the self-perfecting of others. Thus, in practice, uncor- 
rupted self-love is nothing other than love egoistic and 
altruistic — the harmonizing basis, or law of adjustment, 
for all dependent persons. Thus self-love in all its grades, 
as a subjective impulse, instinct, intuition, affection, or 
devotement, develops love in its altruistic forms as the 
leading and harmonious mode of action among fellow 
beings. It spontaneously actualizes that rule of perfect 
morality, "As ye would that men should do to you, do* 
ye even so to them." 

But when the elements of my nature, which are, at 
once, the action of the Creator and the basis of my inter- 
action with him, are appropriated by my self-love they 
lead to a yet higher good than what is realized in my 
relations with finite beings. As ultimate dependence 
upon God comes to be recognized love toward God, as 
supreme, is developed from self-love. And as conscience 
discloses the authority of the perfect, as a moral condition 
upon which alone my intentions can be self-satisfying, 



182 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

I identify the divine source of that authoritative ideal 
self. By so much as self-love apprehends its ideal, and 
by actualizing it experiences practical good, by so much 
it develops appreciation of being; and by so much it 
recognizes and reciprocates the love of its author, God. 
In striving toward the actualization of ideal selfhood 
it thus becomes conscious of pure love toward all upon 
whom it depends. Finding thus, in the fact of depend- 
ence and the desire for highest good and the moral im- 
perative of conscience, a changeless base for the ideal 
self in his nature, as posited by the Creator, man is 
assured of the harmony of self-love with his love of God, 
and is reassured in his aspiration to companionship with 
the perfect. Thus, from the lowest consciousness of per- 
sonal being, instinctively and spontaneously, it is the 
nature of self-love to develop supreme love toward God. 

In this process each mode of love, self-love, love of 
fellow beings, and love of God, retains its object and 
characteristics ; and all are wholly good. They each and 
all realize to the consciousness of the progressive person 
the definitions given above, namely: i. Love is devotion 
to the realization of perfect being. 2. Self-love is devo- 
tion to the realization of a perfect, or ideal, self. 3. 
Ideal being is an imperative criterion for actual finite 
being. 4. Love's actualization of absolute perfection in 
God is the source of authority, the ground of moral obli- 
gation which is felt to be in the ideal criterion for actual 
being in man. 5. Faith, the subservience of the actual 
to the ideal. 

In all these definitions the subjective unity of self-love 
with love of fellow beings and love of God is maintained ; 
and the natural order of their development in rightly 
adjusted progressive life must be, first, self-love; sec- 
ondly, love toward fellow beings; thirdly, love toward 



THE GENESIS OF EVIL 183 

God. Each has in it the law of universal personal adjust- 
ment, "Devotion to perfection of being." Fidelity to 
any one of these modes involves fidelity to all. Treachery 
in one is treachery in all. 

It is clear, then, that self-love is not only holy, but has 
in it that which can keep it holy. As long" as one 
aspires to actualize his best self his self-love abides at 
one with love, and realizes in practical ways that this 
companionship with the perfect is his highest conditioned 
good. A universe of beings, each maintaining a true 
self-love, maintains essential harmony throughout, and 
is wholly good. 

Disordered self-love must disorder the personal deter- 
mination. and misadjust the entire relationship. Thus it 
must break up companionship with the perfect, and 
obstruct the method of supreme good. While one depend- 
ent person cannot determine others, he does determine 
himself within his conditions. He determines his love 
(supreme devotement) and what he will seek as his 
supreme good. To intend his best self, devoted to realiz- 
ing self-perfection, can alone be that pure self-love which 
becomes consciously in hartnony with love of fellow 
beings and of God. Hence, the free intention to become 
his best self, or to be something other and lower than this, 
must decide whether or not he will keep his self-love pure 
— one with love toward God and fellow beings. 

We remember that the self-determining intentions of 
dependent persons, though free, are conditioned. These 
intentions are formed by the use of the preliminary means 
of faculties and susceptibilities which are awakened in 
our nature by external circumstances. Also, their inten- 
tions are dependent upon supplementary effort, often con- 
tinuous and repeated, to give them full determination. 
Their self-determination, in a word, is by use of prelim- 



184 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

inary and supplementary means. We bear in mind, too, 
that this is necessarily the nature of conditioned being, 
not an arbitrary whim of creation. None but the inde- 
pendent person can determine himself without means or 
conditions. 

The susceptibility of self-love to perversion, within 
these faculties and susceptibilities, is the point of evil 
inception. Free will is capable of choosing evil, but it is 
not sufficient to account for the genesis of evil in the 
absence of susceptibility to motives which incite disorder. 
One is capable of choosing, as a matter of will, a serpent 
instead of fish for food, but there is not the slightest 
probability that he will do so while he has no suscepti- 
bility, appetite, for serpents. But if he has an appetite 
which is susceptible to perversion he may come to desire 
such food. If we must account for his making such choice 
it is not sufficient to say, He is free to will it. We must 
find in his demand for food the possible appetence, or 
susceptibility, which may be excited and gratified by such 
food. So, also, the freedom of the will may account for 
the possibility of sin, but not for the probability. The 
improbability of the rise of evil is practically equal to 
an impossibility, but for the susceptibility to selfishness 
which may be developed in the righteous satisfaction of 
pure self-love. 

Self-love is susceptible of perversion, naturally and 
innocently. The good and pleasure of actually possessed 
powers afford a standpoint from which self-love may 
deem it a hardship to forego them for the sake of attain- 
ing other good and pleasure which may be realized in 
a higher and different, but untried, self-development. 
Hence arises the liability to abide in the enjoyment of 
actually attained good, exercising and developing to 
excess those susceptibilities, or feelings, which it grati- 



THE GENESIS OF EVIL 185 

fies, rather than to use them as the preliminary means, 
the stepping-stones to unrealized, but higher modes of 
' life. This excessive development of the lower, and the 
dwarfing by neglect and violation of the susceptibilities 
to higher motives, disorders the whole system and office 
of susceptibility, and substitutes an actually attained self 
for the ideal self which a progressive being must ever 
hold as the criterion of action, and which is essential to 
the purity of self-love. 

The probability of the departure of innocent persons 
from the purity of self-love lies in this susceptibility to 
temptation to undue gratification, which arises from 
naturally and innocently acquired good. Yielding to 
it they determine an undue development of some of their 
feelings and powers ; and this, too, at the expense of neg- 
lecting and violating others. Thus they distort the whole 
system of motivity which subsists between subjective 
affections and the objective means of their use in the 
development of personal character. 

Thus they pervert their relations toward God and fel- 
low beings. They determine themselves otherwise than 
according to their created nature. This self-determined 
distortion of their nature is devotement to the gratifica- 
tion of the actual, the imperfect self. It is the neglect 
and rejection of that ideal self which is present to them, 
backed by the authority of conscience, in their progres- 
sive nature ; and it is the rejection of the method of attain- 
ing higher good. Hence it is that the innocent pleasure 
or ambition which affords a probable choice of the exces- 
sive indulgence of actually attained powers may prevent 
the attaining higher powers and higher good which are 
to be realized in progressive harmony with universal 
adjustment, in devotion to perfection of being. 

By such perversion of a person and of his relations to 



186 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

other persons he assumes to be a center to which he 
demands the interests of all others shall be accommo- 
dated ; and he becomes an incitement or snare to like per- 
version in others. Thus selfishness may be established, 
not only in his determination of himself, but in the world. 
Thus a pure finite person finds in what he actually is a 
motive which may lure him from what he should become 
— lure him into a selfish and, therefore, vicious life. Thus 
this susceptibility, in all finite persons, menaces the har- 
mony of the universe with motivity to evil. Thus the 
"freedom of the will" finds the occasion upon which its 
determination for selfishness is not only possible, but 
probable. 

Human history affords practical illustration, in a thou- 
sand ways, of the innocent susceptibility of self-love to 
a guilty and offensive disorder which, we have seen, must 
be thought incident to any class of conditioned persons. 
The primary conditions of human existence, which are 
established by divine love, provide for the progress of 
human personality toward conditioned perfection, but in 
these conditions of progress is the inception of disorder. 
The knowledge of susceptibility to evil, in conditioned 
persons, is disclosed by consciousness of their progressive 
life. It is not dependent upon human experience, but is 
merely corroborated by it. Human history evinces that 
the rise of evil in an innocent self-love is not a difficult 
nor far-fetched conception, but an overshadowing fact, 
illustrated in the excessive indulgence of some and the 
repression of other natural and innocent susceptibilities 
and faculties. This is their abuse. The question of good 
and evil, as known to the human race, is wholly one of 
use and abuse. Use is the harmonious employment of 
faculties, affections, and objects with reference to pro- 
gressive personal development. Abuse is their dispn> 



THE GENESIS OF EVIL 187 

portionate employment, some in excess, others in repres- 
sion, and, hence, in disordered relation. Self-love is the 
self-determining devotement which decides whether in 
use or abuse it will seek its highest good. Clinging to 
actual self and its, good, self-love becomes selfishness; 
and this perversion is the origin of all that has issued in 
disorder, abuse and degradation. 

Whatever of poetic or allegorical setting may be 
claimed for the Mosaic account of the "fall of man," it 
contains the data of a real fall. The "real fall" is the dis- 
tortion of inner affections which, had they been exer- 
cised and gratified under the guidance of a true self-love, 
would have developed harmonious character. The grati- 
fication of curiosity, or appetite, as means, could not be 
otherwise than innocent and good while subject to a bet- 
ter self which the innocent pair maintained by harmony 
with their Creator, in the simple form of obedience. But, 
made an end to be attained at the expense of their affec- 
tion for God, this gratification was an abuse, which exces- 
sively developed the lower affections and dwarfed or 
abolished the higher susceptibility of self-love to the per- 
fect. In this action self-love is turned from its devotion 
to an ideal life, in communion with God, into devotion 
to actual self and its desires. This is a real fall which 
rejects free interaction with love and assumes vassalage 
to an actual but imperfect and now morbid, depraved 
self. 

Nor need we go back to Eden to know the reality of 
this fall. It is around and in us daily. Selfishness, or, 
what is the same, perverted self-love, is the acknowledged 
source and energy of all the other abuses under which 
humanity groans. As self -degradation has come about 
by abuse of subjective endowments in their relation to 
external means, these external means have been wrought 



18& IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

into mighty forces for evil; insomuch that the physical 
and mental as well as the moral world are filled with evil 
energies. The possession of the soil and mine, the ap- 
propriation of their products, the very air and sunlight 
are subjected to abuse by man's ethical misadjustment 
to them. 

As to how much of present human selfishness and evil 
bias is hereditary, or how much is individually self- 
induced, it is not pertinent to discuss here. We know 
that our conditions are largely awry by reason of the 
modifications which human selfishness has imposed upon 
the original conditions which the Creator posits for our 
progressive being. Yet science sustains no truth more 
firmly than that the more thoroughly we know and nicely 
interact with the Creator's action, the order of which is 
termed "natural law/' the greater good and the greater 
progress in all that is good do we realize. Not only does 
this corroborate the fact of divine benevolence, but evinces 
that harmony with the divine action is the true use, and 
antagonism to that action is the abuse, of both ourselves 
and our environment — evinces that use is the law of wel- 
fare, or good, and that our miseries are born of abuse. 

Whether we regard man as a fresh creation when he 
appeared, as represented, in Eden, or as a gradually 
evolved moral being prior to such appearance, the pic- 
ture of Edenic loveliness seems an appropriate environ- 
ment to his unsullied state ; seems so as an exhibition of 
love's creative harmonies. By so much, also, when he is 
fallen, does an unsubdued and riotous natural world seem 
an appropriate arena which may discipline him into a 
true use of himself by his effort to subdue it to his service. 
More accurately stated, the hardships of his natural en- 
vironment result from his false adjustment to it by his 
abuses,* and, by their corrective tendency, they reprove 



THE GENESIS OF EVIL 189 

these ? buses and suggest his reformation to progressive 
development as the remedy for these hardships. The 
ground, "cursed for his sake" — that is, cursed by reason 
of his false attitude in relation to it — yet vital with the 
activities of love's creative energies, invites man to return 
to the true use of himself that he may recover his environ- 
ment to right adjustment and Edenic loveliness. But 
while man clings to the abuses incident to selfishness the 
whole creation must continue to "groan and travail in 
pain, awaiting the manifestation of the sons of God." 

The historical realization of selfishness illustrates its 
genesis and effect as a disturbance in the evolution of 
love. It is equally clear that such disturbance or disor- 
dering of originally good elements cannot have taken 
place except as the chosen act of finite persons. A per- 
son who thus falsely adjusts himself disturbs the original 
harmony of being. He is a perverter who puts a false 
meaning into his relations to God and toward his fellow 
beings. He assigns them the false character of enemies 
or servants, and abuses their action toward himself. He 
is a "false accuser," and the person who first chose to be 
the perverter of good may well be termed, by bad pre- 
eminence, the Devil. 

Much skeptical ado has been made in ridicule of the 
fact of a personal Devil, but this only raises the suspicion 
that these skeptics have never thought far enough into the 
question to discern that they must either accept this fact 
or hold to the doctrine that evil is an "eternal principle," 
that is to say, that evil is a quality of the Independent 
Being — hold to the eternal coexistence of evil with good, 
which is a doctrine without rational support, but is one 
of the crude superstitions of dualism. If, of these two 
qualities, only good is from eternity, then evil has origi- 
nated as a perversion of good elements ; and if so, this per- 



igo IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

version is the act of a person or persons ; and the first 
of these persons, thus guilty, may be styled the Devil, 
or "false accuser," with entire propriety. But, name him 
what we will, his personal identity and agency must be 
admitted as a logical necessity. 

Moreover, the first of sinners may with equal propriety 
be referred to as in a representative capacity; and the 
whole course of evil which has succeeded his initial per- 
version of good may be, in this sense, termed the "works 
of the Devil," without for a moment supposing him to 
personally inhabit this planet. This last is an entirely 
different question, and has no significance in this dis- 
cussion. 

To sum up at this point : Perfection of personal being 
consists in freedom from conditions; hence, God alone 
is absolutely perfect. Dependent persons must always 
be dependent for their existence, but may become perfect 
within the conditions which this dependence implies. The 
entire evolution of love affords conditions to the progres- 
sive development of dependent persons. Hence, their 
right adjustment to these conditions is in using them for 
progress toward their perfection. The progress of de- 
veloping personality from the most limited personal con- 
sciousness consists of the mastery of limiting conditions, 
and throwing them off as they are transcended by pro- 
gressive self-determination. All conditions to progress 
incite to progressive determination by affording motivity 
thereto. In the term "motivity" we include both objective 
incitements and the inner susceptibility which may be 
awakened, exercised, and satisfied by objective incite- 
ments. When personal determination progresses beyond 
the need of any specific class of conditions the incitements 
of that class should be dismissed from personal motivity. 
The child who is old enough to appreciate a drum or a 



THE GENESIS OF EVIL 191 

gun, yet clings to his rattlebox, is suspected of idiocy. 
Or a man who is sane enough to distinguish excellence 
of character from physical pleasure, yet continues su- 
premely devoted to the latter, is convicted, not of idiocy, 
but of moral depravity. Hence, experienced progress 
teaches self-love that these temporary conditions are but 
means to higher self-development — stepping-stones to the 
higher and wider conditions of a nobler personality. 

But such may have been the interest, the enjoyment, 
of these outgrown conditions as to make them' still allur- 
ing objects, and such may be the hardship of new and 
higher conditions as to render them, in themselves, unin- 
viting — only desirable for the better self-development to 
be attained by using them. The charm of progress to- 
ward a better life, devotion to perfection of being, a better 
self, is the only motivity that can be depended upon in 
such a crisis. Faith and love, in some form or other, can 
alone afford motivity by which the soul may transcend 
this besetment. But to continue in the exercise and satis- 
faction of those means which have fulfilled their use is 
to make the enjoyment incident to them the object of 
self-determination. Self-determination chooses not to 
progress beyond them; and the actual self now attained 
is the object to which self-determination is now devoted. 
The ideal, or better, self is ignored, rejected. Perfection 
of being and companionship with the perfect are set at 
naught. Self-love now chooses its good in whatever 
may gratify this actual, but imperfect, self. It is no 
longer devotion to the perfection of self, to the realization 
of an ideal self, but is devoted to the attained, actual self. 
This is selfishness; and this, in a progressive personality, 
is violation of his being, the essence of sin. Thus the 
normally innocent susceptibility to lower motives is made 
an object of supreme devotement, is excessively exercised 



i 9 2 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

and gratified, and thereby rendered overgrown, morbid, 
and vicious. It becomes the lap of Delilah in which per- 
sonal self-determination, the giant, dallies until shorn of 
devotion to an ideal life, and bound by degrading limita- 
tions. The susceptibilities to higher motives are una- 
wakened, or if awakened in any degree they are rejected, 
violated, and ultimately abolished. Thus the good ele- 
ments in progressive being are disordered, the true rela- 
tions to other persons and to divine love are perverted, 
and the right adjustment of life is lost. 

In a word : Self-love in progressive self-determination, 
seeking the realization of an ideal self, is right and pure. 
But it may become perverted into devotion to an actually 
attained, but imperfect, self. This is a depraved devote- 
ment or a depraved unholy self-love which ( i ) renders the 
actual, lower, or imperfect self morbid by exaggerated 
importance and the gratification, exercise, and undue 
development of the lower feelings ; making the^m the end, 
or object, of self-determination. (2) It thus perverts these 
means from their rightful use as conditions upon which 
to develop higher conditions to a higher self-determina- 
tion. This is to say, perverted self-love corrupts the 
actual self, and disorders the rightful relations of self 
toward God and the world. This is the genesis of evil 
in a person, or a world, originally good. 

Thus self-love is the pivotal fact upon which personal 
harmony is adjusted, for the highest good; and the per- 
version of this pivotal fact, from devotion to self-perfec- 
tion to devotion to actual self, is the genesis of evil. 

This perverted self-love is selfishness. Sin and selfish- 
ness are different names for the act of rejecting the ideal 
self, which I ought to become, and substituting the actual 
self, which I am, as the object of self-devotement. It 
is the apotheosis of self, the "coveteousness which is idol- 



THE GENESIS OF EVIL 193 

atry." Self usurps the throne of God in the soul. Con- 
science, the consciousness of the authority of the perfect, 
condemns this action by imposing the consciousness of 
self-degradation. It involves the consciousness of offense 
toward all to whom I stand related. It involves conse- 
quent guilt, which is the complement of offense. It is, 
therefore, the cardinal violation of being and all the re- 
lationship of being. The disrupting of true adjustment, 
it is the introduction of strife, the antagonist of all good 
by displacing good with evil. It is radical contempt for 
the actual perfection of God and its moral authority, and, 
hence, the enemy of holiness, benevolence, and truth; 
and is the corruption of being. Selfishness, sin, is the 
grand disturbance to the evolution of love, and there- 
fore presents the essential "problem of evil." 



CHAPTER III 
The Solution of Evil 

I beseech Thee, show me thy glory. — Moses. 

"The problem of evil," in its second phase, is the ques- 
tion, How does love, in its evolution, attain the perfect 
determination of altruism — perfect benevolence — not- 
withstanding evil ? Or, to state it in another way, What 
course must the evolution of love be thought to take in 
view of the rise of either error or selfishness, or both ? 

What has gone before exhibits the divine being as per- 
fect, the human being as progressive, and love as the 
nature of the action which determines the perfection of 
the one and the perfect progressiveness of the other. 
Divine love determines the perfect being, and conditions 
the self-determination of progressive beings. And human 
love, upon these conditions, determines progressive being ; 
progressing toward an ideal personality which, when 
realized, is, though dependent, the highest type of con- 
ditioned being — perfect dependent personality. Love is 
the infinite force working out the problem of the universe. 

Evil in general is the practical obstruction or antagon- 
ism to good. It results either from error in carrying out 
devotion to the ideal, or from intentional lapse from that 
devotement. In the former case it exists in the person 
as error, or mistake, and objectively as trespass and mis- 
fortune. In the latter case it is a rejection of love and 
a substituting of selfishness as the mode of self-love. 
This, subjectively, is infidelity to ideal being, and rebel- 
lion against the sacred authority of the perfect. Objec- 
tively, it is the disharmony, abuse, and debasement of 
194 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 195 

all the conditions to which it is related. This latter 
mode of evil will be considered later. 

It is clear that evil is the defeat, for the time being at 
least, of possible good, in varying degree, at any point 
in the career of any person or persons. Evil of either 
form mars, temporarily at least, the otherwise harmonious 
universe, and retards the development of the highest 
possible good. 

Error must beset a person or a race whose exercise of 
self-love arises at the lowest stage of intelligence and 
power at which it is possible. This, indeed, to such a 
degree as to defeat the benevolence of the Creator, but 
for two implied considerations. These are, first, the fact 
that error does not imply a lapse, or break, in the love of 
the creature for his Creator, or in the devotement of self- 
love to his own highest ideal. The harmony of interac- 
tion with the conditioning action of divine love is 
unbroken. Error is a matter of misjudgment or unskill- 
fulness, but has no place in the inner intention of love, 
and does not necessarily induce selfishness. Hence, simple 
error is mistaken action in detail in the preliminary or 
supplementary means of a true intention. But it may 
clash with one's environment of divine or human action 
and interests. For example, a most loving man, devoted 
to God and his fellow beings, and striving to be his best 
self for God and man, may, through error of judgment, 
practice that which injures his own health and that of 
his neighbors. Yet in all this his personal devotement to 
universal good is the same, and his spirit is morally pure 
and benevolent. 

This fact is the foundation for the second relieving 
consideration, namely: The evil result of his misguided 
action educates him to a correct judgment ; and his undis- 
turbed moral harmony with love prompts him to correct 



196 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

his practice. Thus mere error, conditioned by love, is 
corrective in its tendency. It affords, also, the conditions 
for a more exalted exercise of love in beneficent repara- 
tion toward his injured neighbors, and in a nicer future 
interaction with the divine activities in his own nature 
and environment. 

Moreover, a progressive development which gradually 
evolves moral freedom at the earliest possible stages of 
intelligence and power, though it must be most fruitful 
of error, nevertheless results not only in the least evil 
possible and is corrective in its tendency, but develops 
the greatest possible degree of innocent experience of 
good and ill. Error is thus made to strengthen the person 
against temptation to intentional evil. The highest con- 
sciousness of the excellence of right, and of the obnoxious 
character of wrong in proportion to the harm sustained, 
is thus acquired by finite persons. A long term of inno- 
cent error may so educate finite persons in the goodness 
of right and the harmfulness of wrong as to secure them 
forever against liability to intentional wrong. 

In a progressive universe error is made, by benevolent 
conditions, to have a useful mission, but sin has none. 
Error, rendered self-correcting under the auspices of 
love, is the true "bitter-sweet" of human life, and is able 
to eliminate the bitter and perfect the sweet. If, in the 
history of a vicious race, it must be acknowledged that 
"there is a force, not ourselves, which makes for right- 
eousness," how much more could the same force, in the 
history of a race which may ignorantly err, yet is devoted 
to truth and goodness, maintain essential, and realize uni- 
versal, harmony ! This force is the Creator's love, which, 
true to the ideal, posits and maintains an ever-present 
basis of correction, recovery, and harmony to dependent 
persons in all their errors. The unbroken reign of love 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 197 

is the element of perfection in a progressive universe. 
This perfection is not impaired by errors of detail. These 
do not disturb the reign of love, but can only occasion a 
change in the line of its development. Hence, the dis- 
turbance to superficial harmony which may come about 
through innocent error is not an essential evil, but may 
become a good in progressive being. 

But there is a class of error which may arise as inci- 
dent to intentional wrong — as the natural result of think- 
ing from a selfish standpoint. The perversion of self-love 
to selfishness is a personal misadjustment toward one's 
entire relationship which must be fruitful of incalculable 
error and consequent evil. For example, that least malig- 
nant form of selfishness termed egotism, or exaggerated 
self-esteem, leads the person who is afflicted with it into 
endless absurdities, and often calamitous results to others 
as well as himself. To plead that these evils were the 
result of mere mistake will not excuse him in the judg- 
ment of his injured fellow men, but they will hold him 
blameworthy and curse his inordinate self-esteem which 
betrayed him into these harmful blunders. Thus, but on 
a much larger scale, inordinate self-love guiltily augments 
the evil of the world by its unintended incoherencies and 
errors. Many who have simply intended to gratify an 
appetite for stimulants have become debauchees or mur- 
derers. The informing power of a good heart and the 
misleading influence of a bad heart are such prominent 
forces in forming the judgments of men that centuries 
of human experience have stamped them, severally, as 
wisdom and folly. 

This class of error is that which arises from ignoring 
God and devotion to perfection of being as the law of uni- 
versal adjustment. Some of the ablest minds among men 
have perpetrated the most gigantic and hurtful follies 



i 9 8 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

through selfishness. The effort to possess the largest pos- 
sible satisfaction to actual self is illustrated in not only 
the crimes, but the follies, of a Macbeth or a Napoleon, 
as well as in the "fool" who ignored his soul when he 
decided to "pull down his barns and build greater." This 
class of error must be assigned to selfishness, and can 
only be disposed of along with the solution of the problem 
of evil. 

The Problem of Moral Evil. — According to love, all 
being is sacred. The ideal which is self-conscious in love 
is truth, enacted truth is righteousness, intention to enact 
truth is holiness, and the practical satisfaction of love is 
the good. 

Selfishness practically ignores all these facts. Ignoring 
the perfect, independent reality of God, it rejects the 
authority of the perfect, the ground of moral obligation, 
the supreme criterion of all action and being. Man, 
ignoring self-progress toward self-perfection, rejects the 
authoritative ideal which he should actualize, and there- 
by rejects the independent perfection which maintains the 
authority of this ideal. He thus refuses to be the best 
he might be for himself, for God, and for fellow beings. 
He rejects companionship with the perfect and thus deter- 
mines himself in derogation of all others. In this abuse 
of his being he also abuses the conditions of his being. 
This abuse disturbs the order of the world, and corrupts 
the conditions of human life in general. It ignores that 
there is an intrinsic nature, or independent reality, in 
which are truth, right, holiness, and good ; ignores there 
is anything essentially sacred. Hence the line which dis- 
tinguishes between good and evil is the question, Is love 
perfect action? Or, on the other hand, can self-love, as 
the first right of being, determine for itself greater power 
and pleasure, find a better existence, a higher good in 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 199 

selfishness? And if not, has it a right nevertheless to 
choose satisfaction in a self-determination which is 
derogatory to others? Hence, selfishness is the attempt 
of the dependent persons to ignore the Independent, the 
effort of malevolence to disparage benevolence which it 
appropriates and perverts, and to corrupt the conditions 
upon which others must needs determine themselves. 

Thus the rise of selfishness, moral evil, or sin raises 
many most difficult questions. Whoever was the first 
of sinners was the author of one of the most weighty 
problems known to human thought — a problem upon the 
theoretic solution of which depends a true philosophy, 
and upon the practical solution of which depends the suc- 
cess of the personal universe. And every sinner revives 
the same questions within his own relations to God and 
the world. Some of these questions we here venture to 
state : 

1. Is there an independent reality? 

2. Is love the nature of independent reality, perfect 
action, and therefore the criterion of all action? 

3. Does love realize absolutely perfect being in God, 
and therefore an authoritative criterion for all being ? 

4. Is love's ideal, as self-conscious in God, the infinite 
ideal, absolute truth ? 

5. Is love, the nature of God, intentionally determined 
by him, and therefore holy ? 

6. Is love-determined being capable of the highest pos- 
sible good, under all circumstances? 

7. Is a God whose nature is love the best God that 
can be? 

8. Is the universe, as evolved by love, the best that 
might be — capable of the greatest power for good in 
both quality and degree? 

9. May not finite persons determine a higher self-love, 



200 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

greater good power, and pleasure for themselves by self- 
ishness than by supreme love for their Creator and equal 
love for each other, and to that extent be independent of 
God? 

10. Is love the only kind of action which determines 
the highest good in any class of conditions; or may we 
not be satisfied, if we choose, with a life which is indif- 
ferent to God, and which may corrupt the conditions of 
fellow beings ; may we not sin and prosper ? 

These questions suggest how all-comprehending is the 
issue between a pure self-love which is supreme devotion 
to perfection of being, and selfishness which is supreme 
devotion to actual, but imperfect, being. But they all 
center in this: Is love perfect action, the nature of the 
absolute, or independent, reality? Or is it but an arbi- 
trary determination which God chooses as the structure 
of things which he upholds by mere power, and thereby 
imposes hardship upon all which does not harmonize 
with this convention ? If it is the latter, then the pursuit 
of truth, holiness, and good on the part of men is noth- 
ing better than a wise utilitarianism; and selfishness is 
nothing worse than a mistake, or a wrong self-determina- 
tion which one may deliberately choose without blame, 
provided he accepts its ill results. But if it is the former, 
the nature of perfect action, then truth, holiness, and real 
good are intrinsic qualities of being, have an absolute 
basis which is independent of all relationship, structure, 
or conventionality. Man's pursuit of them is a matter of 
progressive companionship with God, as independent, 
infinite ; and man's rejection of them is a matter of essen- 
tial self-degradation, and guilty violation of the rights of 
pure self-love in others. 

Therefore it appears that the solution of evil must be 
a question of permanence, or persistence — the persistence 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 201 

of a personal universe. And this persistence must sur- 
vive all susceptibility to disharmony and disintegration. 
If a personal being can exist indefinitely, yet susceptible 
to evil, it follows that a perfect finite personality or uni- 
verse can never be attained. Hence, the evolution of a 
perfect universe by love implies that its grand requisite 
is to cancel self-love's natural susceptibility to evil, and 
eliminate all selfishness. 

The issue which evil presents is, then, one of conflict, 
antagonism between love and selfishness. The original 
sin is the displacement of love by selfishness, as the nature 
of individual self-determination. Hence, what has been 
termed "the conflict of good and evil" is really the con- 
flict of love and selfishness. It is a rivalry for the supreme 
determination of personal being. All questions which 
arise between good and evil, the true and the false, right 
•and wrong, are essentially involved in this. Upon the 
solution of this issue between, love and selfishness depends 
the perfecting of the personal universe. Hence, the evo- 
lution of love implies that this question must be met and 
settled. How will it be accomplished ? 

How does the evolution of love condition the perfect- 
ing of the personal universe, notwithstanding the rise of 
moral evil? The answer to this question is implied in 
former chapters. What is needed now is to render more 
explicit here what is implicit there, touching this question. 
Hence, a considerable repetition of what has been stated 
may appear in this chapter, though the object is different. 

Motivity, conditioning self-determination, can and must 
afford the solution of this question. Elsewhere we have 
defined motivity as comprehending both subjective sus- 
ceptibility and objective influence, inciting to a choice of 
self-determining action. Hence, motivity is the influence 
which their conditions afford to conditioned persons, and 



202 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

with reference to which they may freely act, adopting 
or rejecting them as the ground of their intentions. Thus 
motivity continually recognizes the moral freedom, or 
self-determination, of conditioned persons. To render 
finite persons eventually unsusceptible to selfishness, and 
finally settle all the beguiling questions which sin has 
raised, and also to settle them by sin's total loss of objec- 
tive motivity, through its self-demonstrated failure and 
turpitude, and by the self-demonstrated persistence and 
excellence of love, is the grand end to be attained. 

We may, therefore, expect the evolution of love to 
take a course that will condition these two objects, namely, 
the canceling of all susceptibility to selfishness, and the 
neutralizing of all objective motivity to evil. We will 
consider them under the following heads : 

I. Subjective motivity; or, in other words, inner sus- 
ceptibility. 

II. Objective motivity; or, outer incentive. 

I. The question plainly recognizes that two things have 
to be accomplished : first, the perfection of human char- 
acter, and, secondly, the abolition of evil. The question 
also implies that the evolution of love cannot solve, but 
can only condition the solution of moral evil. Since the 
question at issue is one of personal determination, it 
leaves to> the evolution of divine love to determine noth- 
ing other than the conditions upon which dependent per- 
sons may determine the perfection of their being and the 
abolition of all evil. As their self-determination is the 
determining factor for the universe, it must be held invio- 
late in this solution. 

Compulsory power cannot solve this question. It may 
be asked, Should not the Creator destroy each person who 
perverts his nature, by withdrawing at least his support- 
ing power, and thus permit that person to lapse from 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 203 

being, cease to exist? Some, with amazing lack of 
thought, ask, Why did not God destroy the first sinner, 
and indeed every sinner, and thus prevent the continu- 
ance and accumulation of sin and sorrow? A moment's 
reflection should suffice to show that such a procedure 
could never answer to finite minds the questions origi- 
nated by sin, nor abolish the susceptibility of self-love to 
selfishness. Indeed, it would be rendered impossible to 
ever accomplish these cardinal ends. God would appear 
as maintaining his independence by sheer force; hence, 
force must appear as the highest manifestation of his 
nature, must be the ground of moral obligation ; and how 
low such morality would be, maintained by force as chief 
incentive, is readily seen. Their harmony, personal free- 
dom, and good must then be limited to the degree to 
which these might be secured by obedience under duress 
of abject fear. Thus God must appear to conditioned 
persons as but a dynamic independent, maintaining him- 
self by mere might, never evincing moral perfection or 
intrinsic excellence of character. 

Since no motive higher than fear of force could then 
appeal to finite persons, they would be incapable of higher 
than enforced obedience; and thus the determination of 
a moral universe would be at an end. Moreover, since 
God had not ventured to meet the question, that selfish- 
ness may be more excellent than love, with any other solu- 
tion than that of interposed strength, this solution would 
afford consolation, and even prestige, to> the condemned; 
would continue to beset the obedient, encourage the 
wicked, and threaten the disintegration of the personal 
universe ; would haunt the throne of God evermore. 
Who overcomes 
By force, hath overcome but half his foe. 

Not upon conditions of justice; limiting the evolution 



204 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

of love to the demands of justice! To secure that the 
existence of finite persons may be simply better than non- 
existence is merely just; that is to say, this much is 
requisite to justify the Creator in his having chosen to 
create dependent beings. But this is not the object of 
love's evolution, cannot achieve a perfect universe, is not 
a determination of the degree of good which can be 
attained by persons of the highest qualities, is not a com- 
plete realization of the divine benevolence. 

Just conditions imply, of course, the immediate elimina- 
tion of sin, whether by death or other punishment of the 
sinner. This must be for the reason that even justice 
must maintain the conditions to good, and eliminate 
incitements to evil. But such conditions cannot be main- 
tained if any person or number of persons may practice 
disharmony and yet be continued in association with the 
obedient, and enjoy, as well as abuse, their benign con- 
ditions. The example of this impunity would constantly 
tempt others to sin. The fact as well as the appearance of 
justice would be wholly lost. Their evil action and influ- 
ence would inflict injury upon innocent individuals, and 
must corrupt society in general. Thus the conditions to 
good must be impaired, incitement to evil enhanced, and 
the least of evil result not secured. This course of things 
must corrupt the entire race, and defeat all good. Justice 
has no alternative but to maintain a process of casting 
out the factors of evil as they arise. It is a necessary 
implication that dependent persons, conditioned in holi- 
ness and benevolence only to the extent of justice, must 
be crushed immediately upon their practicing or intend- 
ing evil. 

It is true, harmony can thereby be assured ; the obedient 
would have no motive but to continue obedient. Evil 
would be suppressed, the creative and supportive action 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 205 

of God would be preserved from perversion or abuse, the 
creation would stand justified, and the Creator's authority 
undisturbed. But . this would be a universe of fear. 
Might would appear necessary to sustain right. Mere 
strength would be the ground of obedience, the basis of 
motives. It cannot inspire motives of a higher order 
than dread. Universal selfishness would be the highest 
type of character. This limited evolution of love cannot 
be perfectly holy, for the reason that it does not realize 
the ideal person or universe; nor can it be perfectly 
benevolent, for the reason that it fails to determine com- 
plete altruistic beneficence. 

If this just conditioning of dependent persons were the 
limit of love's evolution, then either of two results must 
follow : the rise of evil by error or sin must corrupt the 
universe and defeat love, or else the wrongdoer must be 
immediately eliminated, crushed out, from.' its condition- 
ing forces. In either case the question of the possible 
excellence of selfishness is not met, but remains installed 
as a powerful enterprise, and has a prestige which dis- 
credits the moral authority of love. The continuance 
and accumulation of evil must degrade the conditions 
which favor good, and enhance the conditions which 
favor evil, resulting in the entire displacement of 
the former by the latter. In a word, there can be no 
means of preventing the disintegration and defeat of a 
personal universe upon conditions of justice, except by a 
process of casting out the factors of selfishness as they 
arise. 

That the Creator has an arbitrary right to> create finite 
beings in conditions of justice, where their defection 
would be their immediate disaster, and where fear of 
destruction would be the highest incentive to obedience, 
is not disputed here. There are, for aught we know, 



206 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

such orders of being, "servants that do his will," "living 
creatures" that confess his power, "angels who kept not 
their first estate" ; but, though there are such beings, they 
are not the highest representatives of a personal universe. 
They do not know the highest conditions afforded by 
divine benevolence. They may know his righteousness, 
realize his justice, but such beings, confined to such con- 
ditions, cannot determine an ideal universe. They are 
not of the highest order of finite personality, not expo- 
nents of perfect altruism, not capable of the highest con- 
ditionable good. 

They are beings whose functions may form conditions 
to higher orders of beings, as the vegetables and animals 
of this planet form a portion of the conditions to man's 
being and development. By observation of higher motives 
as exemplified in the higher conditions of other orders 
of being they may learn to share the motives of those 
higher beings, and so attain, eventually, to the highest 
personal character. The conditions of human salvation 
which, perhaps, these "angels desire to look into," may 
inspire in them similar motives to those which condition 
man's rise from, a position in some respects "a little lower 
than the angels" to one above them, "crowned with glory 
and honor." And such orders may be needed to con- 
dition the perfection of others and of the universe as a 
whole. But on the basis of justice alone the highest per- 
sonality cannot be attained. On justice alone a perfect 
moral universe cannot be thought. Even if persons were 
created at the highest point of finite intelligence and 
power possible, they would nevertheless have no experi- 
ence of evil, yet would be free to sin. Of the infinite 
excellence of love they might, indeed, have the widest 
possible faith incident to the highest finite intuition, but 
the susceptibility of their self-love to choose their good 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL ±07 

in a selfish use of their magnificent powers would still be 
open before them. Hence, as stated more at length in 
the chapter "Creation," their security in righteousness is 
by no means assured. And in the event they choose 
this selfish course their power for evil would be the 
greatest possible, and the maximum; of ill result must 
follow. And since their sinning would transpire in the 
midst of the highest finite intelligence and motivity, their 
overthrow must be immediate and final. Thus, again, 
the supreme motive to obedience would be selfish fear. 

Incapable of realizing its ideals on conditions of jus- 
tice, love pushes its evolution into higher and wider modes 
of benevolence. The rights of justice all must admit. 
They can condition an evolution of energy, but cannot 
adequately condition an evolution of love; cannot afford 
scope within which the divine choice to determine per- 
fect unselfishness, perfect altruism, can be realized. The 
highest good possible to conditioned being cannot be 
achieved because the highest self-determination possible 
to dependent persons cannot be attained while limited 
to motives of hope and fear. Justice has its place as 
indicating the rights of dependent and independent 
beings. It marks the level below which a God of love 
cannot create nor condition sentient beings, and above 
which they have no claims upon him. They have 
no claim upon him for more than is just; but love, in 
seeking to realize its ideal universe, bestows upon theni 
a degree of good far greater than justice could provide. 
Dependent persons may demand justice, but not grace, 
of the independent. They cannot demand, but the Cre- 
ator can bestow, gracious conditions far above what jus- 
tice requires; and this he does in evolving the perfect 
universe. Grace does not violate justice, but transcends 
it. Justice marks the lowest plane, mercy the highest, 



208 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

upon which a universe may be projected. Upon the 
plane of grace God chooses to bestow the good which he 
realizes there is in being; the good which love is able 
to condition in a universe of dependent persons who are 
morally free. The evolution of love is essentially gra- 
cious, merciful. 

Further: In the question of love's perfection it is 
clearly its altruistic freedom which is put to trial — not as 
to the capability of perfect egoism to afford perfect 
altruism, but as to the susceptibility of free, finite persons 
to afford it scope for perfect determination. If God visits 
sinners with forceful compulsion to obedience he thereby 
confesses inability to condition full, practical determina- 
tion to altruistic benevolence, and thereby confesses the 
imperfection of his love-determined creation; and this 
is to confess that love, his nature, is imperfect. Hence 
it is that love cannot resort to force to disclose the intrin- 
sic authority of moral obligation. God may have the 
arbitrary right to destroy the rebellious directly upon 
their sinful act, but the evolution of love is thereby 
estopped. Love, in sheer self-sufficiency, as independent 
self-determination, must meet rebellion with further 
benevolent conditions if it would condition the determina- 
tion of its perfect altruistic freedom. Let it be steadily 
held in our thought that an evolution which determines 
a perfect altruism is one which gives full development 
to the motive of creation, namely, benevolence in its 
proposed purpose, the highest good of being. To attain 
this purpose, it is self-evident that benevolence must 
have all the scope of limitless altruistic freedom. With 
equal tenacity let it be remembered that this purpose 
is the same as a determination of a perfect objective 
ideal, and that in the love which seeks to realize this 
ideal is the moral authority, or ground of moral obliga- 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 209 

tion, in all the objective action of the Creator, and to 
all finite being. Holiness can be thought only of action 
which is in accord with ideal perfection; and achieve- 
ment of ideal perfection alone can fill out the thought of 
the highest good of being. Hence, benevolence as the 
motive to the realization of the highest good must 
be thought as a motive prompted by holiness. God is 
benevolent as he is holy, and he is holy because his 
nature is love. Therefore, the holy action of God must 
always be benevolent. Holiness is, therefore, the law unto 
benevolence, as the ideal is the law unto the practical. 
It is clear, then, that the achievement of highest good to 
finite persons has for its motive a holy benevolence. As 
benevolence, therefore, is a motive born of that perfect 
egoism which realizes perfect holiness in God's perfect 
self-determination, this benevolence, as motive to the 
determination of an objective universe, must be holy in 
all universal determination. Divine holiness which is 
not benevolent, divine benevolence which is not holy, 
cannot be thought. 

But when holy benevolence is misappropriated and 
abused, made the occasion and interacting abettor of sin 
by the persons to whom it has given existence, the ques- 
tion is, What must be the course of divine action that it 
may realise its holy benevolence in true fidelity to the 
ideal of a perfect universe? The ideal of being which is 
implicit in love's perfect action, whether that action be 
the self-determination of God or his determination of 
the universe, must abide as the moral imperative in both 
egoism and altruism. Any action of God which might 
impair that moral authority would concede the failure of 
love and limit its altruistic freedom. Hence, the thought 
of such action cannot be entertained. It is perfectly clear 
that holiness, as the law of action which develops benev- 



210 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

olence, also establishes the rights of benevolence; and, 
also, that benevolence is not something which, has no 
rights except to submit to abuse. It is equally clear that 
the benevolent action of God might rightfully cease at 
any and every point where it is abused by finite persons 
— might, to conserve moral purity, withdraw, or suspend, 
its positing and interacting power at the first attempt of 
any dependent person toward selfish determination. This 
would be, in legal terms, the limit of justice. But it 
would also be the failure of a moral universe, the failure 
of the altruistic freedom of God, the failure of his love 
as perfect action, for the reason that it thus appears as 
a benevolence which can survive abuse only by force, and 
inspire reciprocity only by fear. If the divine ideal of 
a universe is thus to be limited by arbitrary right, and 
thus requires the support of force, it is clearly not the 
realization of ideal conditioned personality ; it is not, and 
cannot become, a perfect universe. 

The evolution of love has in it no place for coerced 
reciprocation. All degradation of being and all suffer- 
ing which comes by degradation of being must be inflicted 
by persons other than God. The good of being, the good 
of every being, is the purpose of creation. From the 
bosom of love all creative forces steadily pour their ener- 
gies in the direction of that purpose. Only by man's false 
self -adjustment, self -perversion, can his real degradation 
be induced and its sorrows experienced. Destruction of 
being can be thought to come of persons only by self- 
infliction. If persons in a love-created universe become 
incapable of recovery it can only be self-induced. The 
railroad affords the best facility by which to travel over 
long distances, but if one adjusts himself falsely to that 
road by standing or walking before the engine and dis- 
puting the right to the road, this admirable railroad action 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 211 

will override and crush him. But if he board the train 
the same harmonious and persistent action which would 
have crushed him, in his false adjustment to it, will prove 
the greatest facility to his journey. 

No! It is evident from the nature of this problem, 
from the nature of dependent persons, from the nature of 
God, that force cannot solve the problem of evil. Again, 
how may it be solved ? 

Grace, alone, can condition the realization of the ideal 
universe. That is to say, that the ideal which impera- 
tively demands its realization in love's evolution is a 
universe of persons who shall attain to the highest self- 
determination, or freedom, possible to dependent beings ; 
that they shall achieve this in harmony with divine love, 
and shall be able to attain security from danger of dis- 
cord or defection; and that the practical realization of 
this ideal is alone capable of the highest conditionable 
good, which good is the benevolent purpose of love's 
evolution. Further, it is to say, that this security of free 
persons can be achieved only by neutralizing all motive 
to evil, and by affording the highest incitement and sus- 
ceptibility to good. And all this is to say, that the gra- 
cious evolution of love, an evolution beyond the limits of 
justice, conditions not only the rise, but the remedy, of 
evil. 

Grace is a necessity in the realization of a perfect moral- ' 
universe. This is not saying that God is under neces- 
sity to create a universe, but having chosen to create he 
imposes upon himself certain necessary conditions, and 
one of them is mercy, a degree of benevolence beyond the • 
boundary of arbitrary right. It is that degree of benev- 
olence which conditions the maintenance of dependent 
persons, though such persons are out of harmony with 
love, by either error or intention. 



212 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

Since progressive development is the essential mode 
of attaining ideal conditioned being, and since its lower 
stages are most liable to error, it is evident' that the leni- 
ence of grace is a necessity to the evolution of love. 

Sin, the intentional perversion of self-love into selfish- 
ness, arbitrary right would demand should be estopped 
by the withdrawal of creative, or sustaining, power from 
the sinner; thus permitting him to perish. But we have 
seen that this intervention of force, by whatever mode, 
cannot meet the questions which sin raises, and the moral 
necessities it imposes. Such action would end an evo- 
lution of love, extinguish a moral universe except in the 
bare form of choosing between fear and penalty, and 
would utterly cancel the moral sacredness of truth. 
Benevolent altruism, the motive to creation, would be 
defeated. The problem of excellence or nonexcellence 
of love and selfishness must be worked out upon their 
merits as rival methods of self-determination. Hence, 
grace is a necessity as affording scope in which this solu- 
tion may appear. 

Thus a successful evolution of love must be able to con- 
dition the moral recuperation of sinners; must demon- 
strate love's ability to outlive all possible disaster in 
attaining a perfect universe, and thus yield to all finite 
persons the consciousness of its perfection in all it implies. 
Hence, gracious forbearance is a necessary condition to 
the evolution of love. Mercy, though not a necessity to 
divine personal perfection, is a necessity to a successful 
moral universe; a necessity in realizing the highest objec- 
tive good proposed by infinite benevolence. The infinite 
pathos of God's mercy has its germ in his benevolence 
as the primary motive to creation. It is not an after- 
thought ; it is "from the foundation of the world." Since 
only the gracious benevolence of divine love affords ample 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 213 

scope in which to condition motivity to the ultimate solu- 
tion of evil, we come now to consider more explicitly : 

What are the implied processes or forms in which love 
affords ample motivity to the complete solution of evil? 

Two words comprehend the answer to this question, 
Faith and Persistence. By affording the conditions which 
will lead to faith the evolution of love furnishes to finite 
persons the form, of motivity, by which to cancel self- 
love's susceptibility to selfishness. Faith — which is sub- 
jection of the actual to the ideal — is man's self-deter- 
mined condition upon which his love — his devotion to 
an ideal life — arises and determines his perfection. Thus 
divine love gains scope within which to inspire reciprocal 
love in man, and to demonstrate its merit to him, and in 
him, and by him. 

But the gracious benevolence of divine love which 
affords the conditions to faith thereby gives scope also 
to selfishness in which to demonstrate itself, to modify 
natural conditions to suit its own ends, and to* appropri- 
ate the lenience of grace in making full determination of 
its results — a determination more imposing and more 
favorable to selfish success than it could make, but for 
the gracious forbearance and kindly conditions which 
divine love affords to sinners. 

By thus conditioning the thorough self-demonstration 
of their merit or demerit, their persistence or self-destruc- 
tion, the objective motivity of love is enhanced, and that 
of selfishness is abolished. This outcome must establish 
a universal conviction that love is perfect action, perfectly 
adjusted life; must establish, also, susceptibility to 
motives of love, and aversion to selfishness, and thus 
must settle all disturbing questions and secure universal 
harmony. 

We will be helped, however, in gaining a more explicit 



214 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

view of this solution by a succinct grouping of the leading 
points, or stages, in the process : 

A. THE PROCESS OF FAITH 

1. Divine love posits, in nature, or maintains by super- 
natural intervention, the conditions to faith. 

2. Faith cancels the susceptibility to selfishness; and 
conditions the progressive determination of dependent 
persons by conditioning hope and love in them.. 

3. The complete development of their faith, exercised 
by love to God, establishes in them the highest finite 
experience of personal freedom, harmony, and security; 
and establishes in their self-love entire susceptibility to 
the motivity (incitement) of the ideal self, the ideal uni- 
verse, and the moral authority of the perfect in divine 
love ; that is, susceptibility to love and aversion to selfish- 
ness. 

4. These self-determined qualities, harmony, largest 
freedom, and security, are the essential conditions to 
the achievement of the highest finite good. 

B. THE PROCESS OF PERSISTENCE 

1. The determination of human love, upon the basis 
of faith, eliminates evil (1) by repentance of evil inten- 
tion; (2) by the corrective discipline of ill results. 

2. The opposite, or selfish, determination eliminates 
uncorrected evil by self-defeat. 

3. The result of this process, confirming faith by dem- 
onstrating the progress and persistence of love as perfect 
self-determining action, and demonstrating the futility 
and turpitude of selfishness, settles all the questions which 
sin had raised and abolishes all objective incentives to 
evil. 

The importance of these forms of motivity, however, 
demands a fuller elaboration of this scheme : 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 215 

THE PROCESS OF FAITH 

I. The natural conditions in which man is placed by 
his Creator render him conscious of certain always-con- 
ditioning facts : being, dependence, self-love, reason, con- 
science, and self-determination, or will. These constitute 
the abiding conditions upon which faith arises and is 
maintained. The first three give rise to the impulse or 
demand for progressive development, the last three con- 
strue what that development should be and the manner 
of realizing it. Upon the facts being and dependence 
reason unavoidably recognizes the independent; and in 
the independent readily recognizes the infinite, the per- 
fect, the absolute. To self-love, with its love of being 
and desire for highest good, conscience promptly unites 
the demand to be one's best self. This prompting to be 
one's best self, a demand which is spontaneous in all 
mankind, gives rise naturally to the question, What is 
the ideal, or perfect, life? And whatever anyone may 
judge to be the best, the true life for him, under his cir- 
cumstances, is the ideal which conscience insists he ought 
to actualize. This moral authority which conscience gives 
to the ideal of life is wholly inexplicable, except as the 
independent sentiment of a perfect being — the sentiment 
of that independent force which posits our nature. This 
ideal of life, or ideal self, is not an object of perception 
and need not be rationally defined, but the demand for 
it is felt in the sense of dependence and self-love, its 
moral authority as a criterion for actual life is felt in 
conscience, reason grasps it as an implication of the inde- 
pendent, and self-determination seeks to actualize it. In 
a word, these facts impose the conviction that present 
being has its only significance and satisfaction in becom- 
ing. "Man never is [fully], but always to be blest." 
Acting upon this conviction is adjusting the existing self 



216 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

as a becoming self, seeking perfect selfhood. And this 
is only saying that it is acting upon the facts which con- 
sciously condition our being. This is living, active, prac- 
tical, natural faith, "the subservience of the actual to the 
ideal," of the present to the becoming, the imperfect to 
the perfect, the dependent to the independent. It arises 
naturally upon natural conditions ; and must arise just as 
naturally when the same conditioning facts are revealed 
to the human consciousness by supernatural methods. 
Thus appears the first step in "the process of faith"; 
Divine love posits, in nature, or maintains by supernatural 
intervention, the conditions to faith. 

2. Faith cancels the susceptibility of self-love to selfish- 
ness; and conditions progressive self-determination of 
dependent persons by conditioning hope and love in them. 

The susceptibility of self-love to be beguiled into self- 
ishness is the weak point, so to speak, of the personal 
universe, as it is of the individual person. This for the 
reasons that they are (i) self -determining ; (2) their 
steadfast harmony must be progressively self-deter- 
mined; (3) this progress must be incited by desire or 
affection; (4) desires and affections are susceptible to 
abuse by excess or neglect. A pure self-love, with but 
finite knowledge, may be lured by the gratification of one 
class of desires or affections to the neglect of others which, 
if not neglected, would incite to further progress. Thus, 
devoted to the satisfaction of an imperfect self, self-love 
sinks into selfishness. Thus self-love, conditioned by 
incitements to progressively actualize an ideal self, is 
liable to choose satisfaction in the actual enjoyment of 
those incitements and discard the ideal. To fortify this 
weak point in self-love is a work which only each person 
can do for himself. To do this is to accomplish security 
by abolishing all personal susceptibility to selfishness; 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 217 

and thus a person or a universe may become secure in the 
steadfast harmony of love. 

There are but two possible conceptions in which a free 
being can be thought securely unsusceptible to evil. One 
is that of his omniscience — a perfect knowledge of the 
infinite excellence of love and the nonexcellence of selfish- 
ness. But this conception can apply to only an infinite 
person; it is impossible to created beings. The other 
conception is that of self-love rendered unsusceptible to 
selfishness by subjecting actual self to the progressive 
realization of an ideal life. Since the susceptibility of 
self-love to selfishness lies in satisfaction with attained 
good of the actual self, faith cancels this susceptibility 
by subjecting the actual self and holding it subservient 
to the progressive realization of the ideal, better self. 

Thus faith, by subjecting the actual to the ideal self, 
places self in the attitude of expectancy. This attitude 
is hope, an attitude essential to progress. And when 
by faith's action this attitude is secured the opportunity 
has come for that self-determining action which naturally 
arises and seeks to realize the ideal self. This self-deter- 
mining action is that devotement to the ideal self which is 
termed self-love. And further, when self-love brings the 
actual self up to the standard of life which the ideal self 
indicates, the resulting enlargement and enrichment of the 
actual self grasps a yet better ideal self. Thus in pro- 
gressive persons the ideal keeps ever in advance of the 
actual man. As the poet has it, "The ideal, stable type 
of ever-moving progress." 

The authority which conscience gives to the ideal self 
is that which the self-realized perfection of God gives 
to ideal perfection over the actual in all imperfect per- 
sons. Hence, faith in God is that active faith which sub- 
jects the actual to the ideal in all imperfect but progressive 



218 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

persons. And living worship and service of God, by me, 
enacts that faith which renounces the self that I am in 
order to attain the self which the ideal indicates and con- 
science insists I ought to> become. Thus progressive 
realization is accomplished by supreme devotement to 
God, as the perfect person, and devotement to finite per- 
sons, as entitled to rights and interests of self-love in 
common with ourselves. 

Faith risks the rights and interests of self-love upon 
its essential identity with love, trusting that in loving 
God and fellow men one will attain that ideal selfhood 
which pure self-love seeks. Faith thus gives an outlook 
to hope, and affords scope for the exercise of the largest 
conditioned self-determination. Theoretically, this faith 
contains the conception that (i) love, as the nature of 
God, is actual perfection, or perfect action, conscious of 
absolute truth and perfect good; (2) dependent being 
exists in accordance with truth and good; (3) human 
love toward God realizes essential harmony with abso- 
lute truth, and will achieve the highest conditioned good ; 
(4) the highest interests of self-love will eventually fall 
in with supreme love to God and love toward fellow 
men. 

When we say that "the purpose in the creation is to 
realize the greatest conditioned good/' it is said on the 
ground that love determines perfect benevolence by seek- 
ing to realize the highest ideal universe; and that this 
ideal, when realized, will be the greatest possible con- 
ditioned good, a perfect universe. All this is held on 
the ground that love is perfect action, conscious of the 
infinite ideal and of the ideal universe, and, hence, the 
unit in which are absolute truth and perfect good; and 
on the ground that the highest good, conditioned or 
unconditioned, is love's realization of its ideal. 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 219 

The belief that what is true is essentially good, and 
what is good is essentially true, is in the last generaliza- 
tion the belief that absolute truth and perfect good subsist 
in the nature of the one perfect being. And since love is 
the nature of perfect being it is the ultimate unit in which 
are absolute truth and perfect good. Hence, the highest 
generalization is implied in "faith in God." 

But the rise of selfishness questions this unity of high- 
est beneficence and perfect truth in love. It regards truth 
as an arbitrary structure to be accepted only as it may 
be indicated by experienced utility; and utility is esti- 
mated accordingly as it satisfies the present, actual self. 
Thus selfishness is based upon unfaith, or unbelief in the 
authority of the ideal and all it implies. 

On the other hand, love, in the form of human devote- 
ment to God, or of love to fellow men, or of pure self- 
love, implies the subjection of present, actual self, with 
all its utilities, as being but a point of departure for prog- 
ress toward finite perfection. And this perfection need 
not be perceived nor comprehended in advance, as a mat- 
ter of knowledge, but believed to inhere in love ; and that 
it will be evolved by the harmonious interaction of human 
love with the all-conditioning love of God. Hence, that 
action which man takes, by which he subjects his actual 
self and all present interests and utilities to love of God 
and fellow men, is actual, or living, faith. 

Practically, then, faith is man's complete self-subjec- 
tion to God; and it consciously contains (1) entire 
dependence upon God for the conditions of highest well- 
being; (2) entire freedom in practically recognizing, act- 
ing upon, this dependence; (3) security, in moral 
strength derived from purity of intention, alliance with 
the independent, and acting from infinite motives. 

Hope arises spontaneously upon these contents of faith. 



220 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

Accurately speaking-, hope is the attitude, eager and 
expectant, which the soul is placed in by living faith. It 
is an attitude facing forward, toward self-perfection ; and 
its sentiment is, Progress. The subjection of the actual 
man to the realization of an ideal manhood kindles the 
aspirations for progress. Maintaining faith, which con- 
stantly thus subjects the actual to the ideal, he can say 
at any stage of his experience, "One thing I do, forget- 
ting the things which are behind, and stretching forward 
to the things which are before, I press on toward the 
goal." In the experience of faith and hope progress is 
righteousness, harmony, freedom, and security. Unbe- 
lief is fossilization in my present imperfection, and this 
fossilization is sin. 

Love to God arises immediately and spontaneously 
when man's sense of dependence and his free self -subjec- 
tion to the ideal are complete. It is supreme devotion to 
God as an absolutely perfect person — perfectly holy, 
true, and benevolent. This supreme devotement is the 
outcome of faith's adjustment of those conditions which 
the Creator's love originally affords for his interaction 
with dependent persons. It is an adjustment which sub- 
jects the intentions of man to the moral authority of the 
perfect as expressed in conscience. 

Practical faith which thus works out in love takes for 
granted that God is a perfect being; perfect because love 
is his nature. This is not logically defined in faith but 
is its spirit, the concrete sentiment of its action. Yet the 
truth thus premised is not gratuitously assumed by 
dependent persons, but is consciously recognized by them 
as imposed by the six great facts which, as we have 
seen, permanently condition their lives — the facts which 
impose the conviction that our present being has its only 
meaning and real satisfaction in becoming. Faith takes 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 221 

this great truth in somewhat the same way as the "law 
of gravitation" is taken as an hypothesis by which to 
account for existing phenomena, and also as a law by 
which to construct sciences and apply scientific concep- 
tions to the projectment of practical affairs. So the man 
of faith acts upon the hypothesis that God is a perfect 
being and that his perfect nature is love; and with this 
as the law or ground of moral authority proceeds to sub- 
ject the actual man and his actual environment to con- 
formity with his ideal, or best conception, of what manner 
of man and what manner of use of his environment are 
in harmony with the nature and will of a God of love, 
This is the concrete sentiment of faith in all its action, 
even though it may not wait for a logical defining of its 
hypothesis. 

Yet the truth which is thus used as an hypothesis 
is, as stated above, not gratuitously assumed by our man 
of faith, but is consciously recognized by him as imposed, 
forced upon him, by the six great facts which permanently 
condition his inner life — the facts which impose the con- 
viction that our present being has its only satisfactory 
meaning in becoming. 

By saying this truth which is the hypothesis of faith 
is imposed we mean that it cannot be gotten rid of. Rea- 
son has it on its hands, nor can be quit of it, except by 
self-surrender to that heart-foolishness which says there 
is no God. Let us, therefore, see again what these facts 
are which thus imperiously impose upon reason the great 
truth, "God is perfect being." They are being, depend- 
ence, self-love; reason, conscience, and will. The first 
three originate the demand for progress, the latter three 
direct the form and method of that progress. Being 
enables me to say, I am. Dependence makes me say, 
I am dependent upon an independent being. Self-love 



222 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

demands, Though I am dependent I have the inalienable 
right to make the best of myself. To these reason adds 
its recognition of the independent person, infinite, perfect. 
Reason also recognizes that finite persons are progressive 
in their nature, and that their best realization of self- 
love is by progressive development in harmony with their 
conception of the perfect person. Conscience, the fifth 
of these facts, contributes to this conception of per- 
fect personality the sentiment, or feeling, of his supreme 
moral authority. Recognizing that he is not only per- 
fect, but is intentionally perfect, reason sees that he is 
holy, and that his perfection is not merely an exhibition 
of his power to be perfect, but has the infinite sacredness 
of an intentional and supremely devoted perfection. This 
is felt in conscience as well as recognized by reason and 
enters into our conception of the independent person upon 
whom we are dependent. The will, or power of self- 
determination, completes this list of qualities which can- 
not be set aside, and which imposes the conviction upon 
us that "God is perfect being," and that the success of 
self-love in seeking the best of ourselves is to interact 
with him, in the sense in which dependent persons may 
interact with the Independent, and be conformed to him. 
Faith, like the flame which shows in the spectrum what 
materials produce it, implies and exercises all of these 
six facts as the vital data from which it spontaneously 
arises. Hence, it is clear that the basis upon which faith 
arises is not a merely assumed hypothesis, but a body of 
unescapable truth, the practical application of which, faith 
simply enacts by subjecting the actual to the best con- 
ception, or ideal, which this body of truth affords. 
Hence, we define faith as that action of the soul which 
subjects the actual self to the ideal, or best conception of, 
self. 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 223 

Moreover, the hypothesis of faith is demonstrable, in 
the sense in which the law of gravitation is demonstrated 
by the successful construction of extensive buildings and 
mechanism depending upon this law. One of the first 
demonstrations of faith is that which is experienced by 
finite persons who conform their becoming to the divine 
nature, and realize the success of their faith in moral 
recovery from guilty self-condemnation and selfishness 
to the spirit and practice of love toward God and man. 
This power of a new life in the individual, and the power 
of religious faith, in history, are results which demon- 
strate the validity of faith as the hypothesis on which they 
are produced. The consciousness of harmony between 
conscience and passion, harmony among a community 
of persons thus faithful, and harmony of dependent with 
independent, progressive with perfect, consciousness of 
awakened susceptibility to the intrinsic motives which 
inhere in the nature of the independent — such as holiness, 
truth, and good — consciousness of enlarged freedom, 
exalted self-determination, and increased moral strength, 
are practical developments of this demonstration. 

Faith thus conditions actual progress from the present 
to a better self — the conscious passing from selfishness 
to love, from guilt to purity; progress in actualizing an 
ever-advancing ideal self ; progress in appropriating gra- 
cious conditions, as a tree appropriates the resources of 
the soil; and progress in knowledge of the truth, as the 
tree extends its branches and unfolds its leaves to breathe 
a higher and wider atmosphere. 

3. The complete development of their faith, exercised 
by love, establishes in progressive persons the highest 
finite experience of personal freedom, harmony, and 
security; and establishes in their self-love entire suscepti- 
bility to the incentives of the ideal self, the ideal universe, 



224 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

and the moral authority of the perfect in divine love; 
that is, susceptibility to love and aversion to selfishness. 

In this life of faith which is elaborated by love, a life 
which is elaborated upon the highest and widest generali- 
zation, personal character is not trammeled by mechanism 
nor restricted to the narrow limits of perceived facts, but 
has the scope of all the implied facts of being and love. 
Devoted to the realization of an uncomprehended ideal 
self it lays hold of the infinite motives which are implied 
in the limitless benevolence and the moral authority of 
the all-conditioning One. Whether these data of faith 
are presented to the human consciousness by natural or 
supernatural methods, they constitute the broad platform 
upon which human love determines the largest finite free- 
dom and highest harmony. By habitual faith, confirmed, 
steadfast, inwrought by devotion to God in the midst of 
temptation, self-denial, and duty, human beings obliterate, 
cancel permanently, all susceptibility to- selfishness, and 
thus determine their security. Moreover, this security is 
buttressed by the intensely developed susceptibility to all 
motives of love and fixed aversion to selfishness. These 
results are attained in the process of faith's demonstra- 
tion of love's perfection and the turpitude of selfishness. 
Susceptibility to love and aversion to selfishness are the 
lines of eternal fortification to the security of free finite 
beings; and these are established by that progress which 
faith conditions, hope desires and expects, and love deter- 
mines. 

Thus it appears that the freedom, harmony, and 
security of finite persons are all implicit in the steadfast 
faith of even the least of those who trust in God. It is 
not a philosophy, nor a culture, though it affords both 
the largest philosophy and highest culture, but it is the 
enactment of a concrete sentiment which is inspired by 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 225 

the facts which God's conditioning love discloses to the 
human consciousness. It is the enactment of a concrete 
sentiment which adjusts the actual self to the ideal as 
the essential condition upon which to realize that ideal. 
It is the consciously free self-subjection, or self-adjust- 
ment, of the determining dependent to the conditioning 
independent being. It is the arena of proof in which finite 
action gains assurance of infinite implications. Hence, 
all the questions which sin raises are settled by the pro- 
gressive development of personal harmony, freedom, and 
security upon the conditions of faith. Hence, it is in faith, 
that the solution of evil is found. 

4. These self-determined qualities, harmony, freedom, 
and security, are the essential conditions to the achieve- 
ment of the highest finite good. 

We have seen in a former chapter that the benevolence 
of love implies that the divine object, or purpose, in crea- 
tion is the greatest good in kind and degree possible to 
conditioned beings. What are the forms in which that 
purpose is to be ultimately realized we have not presumed 
to say. But in whatever form or forms or in whatever 
degree this object is ultimately developed love implies 
that it is wholly beneficent, and that it is the highest con- 
ditionable good. This is merely saying that the highest 
good, conditioned or unconditioned, is the practical reali- 
zation of love. 

We have seen, also, that this highest good can never 
be realized except as the product of a universe which is 
perfect in certain characteristics, or qualities; a universe 
consisting of finite persons whose qualities, or character, 
are incident to their perfect interaction with that divine 
action which affords the conditions of their existence. 
It is utter folly to suppose that the greatest possible good 
may be achieved by factors who are imperfect in quality 



226 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

and imperfect in their interaction. Hence, we have seen 
that the supreme good, unalloyed in kind and limitless in 
degree, is utterly unattainable by finite persons until their 
qualitative perfection is attained. The realization of the 
good, then, is conditioned upon the quality of persons 
who are disembarrassed of all disharmony, all unneces- 
sary limitation, and all susceptibility to defection by self- 
ishness. The thinkable degree of good which is possible 
to the highest thinkable finite person or persons cannot 
be thought attainable except on these qualitative con- 
ditions. Hence, we reaffirm that the supreme good of the 
universe must be conditioned upon the perfection which 
love realizes in God, and the perfected quality, or charac- 
ter, of the persons who compose the universe. The essen- 
tial characteristics of finite perfection, we have seen, are 
(i) the largest finite consciousness of freedom, (2) per- 
fect harmony in this freedom, and (3) perfect security 
in this harmony. These, then, are the qualitative perfec- 
tions which are the essential conditions to the supreme 
good of the universe. 

We have seen, also, that these qualities of free beings 
must be achieved by their canceling all susceptibility to 
selfishness. We have seen, too, that not only freedom 
and harmony, but security, by canceling this suscepti- 
bility, is determined by these persons themselves. In a 
word, the conditions to the highest good cannot be 
attained except in the self-determined character of God's 
creatures. Hence, it is clear that to determine their 
largest freedom, complete harmony, and steadfast security 
is the only method by which the highest good can be 
attained. 

It has been made clear, also, that these qualitative con- 
ditions are determined in each person by perfecting his 
love to God, his pure self-love, and his love to his fellow 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 227 

beings ; in other words, by his devotion to a perfect God, 
to the realization of a perfect self, and to the perfecting 
of all others — the perfect companionship. 

Thus it appears that these characteristics — freedom, 
harmony, security — which each conditioned person may 
determine in himself, are the matured conditions upon 
which such persons may be living factors, interacting 
with God, to achieve the grand purpose of the universe. 
They are a set of conditions which, God could not create. 
Even if he could create dependent persons in the highest 
harmony and freedom, yet he could not create them secure 
in that harmony and freedom, unsusceptible to beguile- 
ment — unsusceptible to beguilement in the use of those 
affections and powers which are essential to instigate 
their development of highest finite personality. These 
qualitative perfections of finite persons, which they must 
determine in themselves upon the conditions which God 
places in and about them, enable them, interacting with 
God, to achieve the purpose of creation, unmarred by any 
suspicion of selfishness, unalloyed with evil. 

Moreover, these self-determined perfections which are 
the essential conditions to the supreme conditioned good 
are attainable by persons of the least intelligence who act 
upon faith in God. And thus is established among men, 
though weak and ignorant, that practical character which 
is possible only upon the ground that love is the nature 
of perfect being and that the realization of its ideals is 
the highest good. To establish this practical character 
establishes, also, perfect subjective motivity to all good 
and aversion to all evil in all the faithful. And thus is 
established among men the nucleus of a self-determined 
universe, free, harmonious, secure, and eternal. 

II. Objective motivity, or external incentive, is to be 
understood as comprehending every influence which may 



228 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

appeal, as an object of either desire or aversion, to the 
inner susceptibility. As the subjective motivity is per- 
fected by the canceling of all susceptibility to selfishness 
by the process of faith, so also is the objective motivity 
to love completed by the persistence of love and the fail- 
ure of selfishness. This persistence is in two principal 
forms — the persistent conditioning process of divine love, 
and the persistent determination of human love — both 
evincing perpetual personal life and altruism. 

Persistence, the true "survival of the fittest," the con- 
quest which excellence of quality wins over mere energy, 
is the test of perfect action; hence, a test of personal 
excellence. It is a question between love and selfishness 
upon which their claims to excellence must be demon- 
strated. If the nature of perfect action is love, a mode 
of self-determination capable of perpetual personality, 
eternal life, then love will persist. If selfishness is capa- 
ble of persistent and progressive personality it must 
continue evermore. 

But personality is self-determining freedom ; hence, the 
question of persistence depends upon the power to main- 
tain or extend the scope of personal determination. If 
love were a mode of personal action which would increase 
its limitations and diminish the scope of its freedom, that 
is, if it would narrow the scope of its self-determining 
power, it would only be a question of time when, in the 
exercise of love, personality would be wholly sunken and 
lost. If, on the other hand, it throws off limitations, 
obtains mastery of conditions, makes use of them to rise 
to higher conditions, and survives their use, it thus not 
only maintains, but enlarges, its sphere of self-determina- 
tion and enacts a persistent personality. So, also, if 
selfishness, as a mode of self-determination antagonistic 
to love, increases personal limitations, that is, diminishes 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 229 

the scope of personal freedom, it is only a question of 
time when, by selfishness, personal freedom will be wholly 
lost. And, on the contrary, if selfishness can determine 
a perpetual personal freedom it must continue evermore. 
Hence, it is plain, the excellence of personal being consists 
not in pleasure, but in exalted personality, higher and 
wider freedom, self-determined persistence. This is the 
supreme good. It is found in that mode of action which 
realizes persistent personal development in companion- 
ship with the immortals. 

The exponents which indicate the degree of one's per- 
sonal self-determination are personal persistence and altru- 
istic freedom. In God, love affords perfect altruistic free- 
dom because of its being the divine nature which realizes 
perfect egoism. And love subjects itself to an exhaustive 
test of this freedom, in the creating and upholding of a 
universe of persons who are free to antagonize and per- 
vert its action. It maintains the conditions of their exist- 
ence, freedom, and progressive development. And noth- 
ing but their own free determination can impair these con- 
ditions or debase their own personality. And if the 
benevolence of the Creator endures, uncorrupted and 
unimpaired, any strain which the freedom of the people 
of the universe can impose upon it these people thereby 
demonstrate the perfect altruistic freedom of divine love. 
Thus the universe becomes conscious of the fact that love 
is perfect action. 

Love, by creating a personal universe, professes to be 
the nature of independent being, perfect action, infinite 
energy perfectly adjusted, which is infinite, perfect per- 
sonality; and by creating a universe of persons permits 
them to demonstrate to themselves this perfection. When 
love is thus universally demonstrated to be perfect action, 
perfect being, wholly and infinitely excellent and benefi- 



2 3 o IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

cent, its moral authority (that is, the authority that 
demands that all action of all persons shall conform to 
love) will be settled forever, and no motive against it 
can exist. 

Moreover, for persons who shall by means of loving 
devotion to others promote a progressive personality in 
themselves, this altruism, this devotement to others is the 
exponent of their personal excellence. And the degree 
to which they are capable of devotion to the welfare of 
others is the measure of their personal greatness. Thus 
each person has in himself the means by which to demon- 
strate the persistent and progressive quality of a loving 
self-determination. He, therefore, demonstrates for him- 
self that love has in it eternal life. 

On the other hand, selfishness says: "Live for your 
own pleasure and ambition. Use your strength of body 
and brain to subdue others and appropriate their rights 
and service." Self-satisfaction is the criterion of per- 
sonal excellence which selfishness affords. Each person 
possesses the conditions upon which he may prove his 
personal exaltation or degradation in the degree he is 
capable of altruistic devotement. If he must lay under 
contribution the rights and resources of others to main- 
tain his satisfaction, secure his good, he is to' that extent 
dependent, personally limited. Though he have the 
material and intellectual might of a Caesar or Antony, 
or the splendor and admiration of a Cleopatra, and yet 
require them all to' satisfy his passion for pleasure or 
power, he simply evinces that all his resources are ab- 
sorbed by his lowest and narrowest subjective wants. 
Selfish egoism is an ever-hungering, but unsatisfied, self- 
limitation. 

The first cardinal point of love' 's t persistence, in success- 
fully fortifying the weakest point in finite persons, is in 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 231 

this security gained by canceling self-love's susceptibility 
to selfishness. 

The point now to be noted is the disposition to be made 
of the evil which has resulted to human nature by selfish- 
ness, and the evils of human environment in the form 
of perverted social, civic, and religious conditions; evils 
which have been developed through the physical, mental, 
and moral perversions which have arisen from selfishness. 
Centuries of abuse have given apparently permanent hold 
to these evils and made them the hereditary lot of man- 
kind. They have the seeming, at least, of persistent 
forces ; and many have been led to regard them as a part 
of the essential structure of human nature. But their 
permanence is only apparent, not essential. The fact 
that faith, working by love, is practicable with all human 
beings, with the crudest as well as the cultured, evinces 
that personal determination, upon the conditions of grace, 
can uproot them all. Hence — 

THE PROCESS OF PERSISTENCE 

i. The determination of human love, upon the basis 
of faith, eliminates evil (1) by repentance of evil inten- 
tion; (2) by the corrective discipline of ill results. This 
is to say, that essential harmony maintained or restored 
by repentance persists in its ability to correct all ill results 
of either error or sin; just as truly adjusted machinery 
wears away and corrects all superficial roughness or 
inequalities. 

A universe evolved by love can neutralize, make away 
with, or turn to account all mere inaccuracies. (1) Of 
wrong actions all are of the nature of mere inaccuracy 
except bad intentions. These alone constitute self-deter- 
mining action. Therefore, in a universe of persons, ulti- 
mate harmony depends on harmony of intentions alone. A 



232 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

sin once committed can never be recalled ; it is an enacted 
reality existing now independent of the will or wish of 
the perpetrator. But since the intention in sin may be 
recalled, repented, confessed, renounced, the original har- 
mony of pure intention between God and the sinner may 
be restored; and this personal harmony will ultimately 
correct the ill effect which the sinner may have otherwise 
sustained. Hence, upon repentence of intention, faith 
affords personal readjustment and reparation, in the sense 
of forgiveness and moral recuperation, to the sinner. (2) 
The objective evil effects of their former sinful actions 
fall into the category of inaccuracies, errors, or superficial 
maladjustments. These are transcended by reparation 
or by being otherwise turned to account as means of cor- 
rective chastisement and discipline, or in mutual neutrali- 
zation and self-defeat. They have become a part of the 
general environment, in which they ultimately neutralize 
each other. 

Physical death, the culmination of these ills in a change 
of environment, ends them for individuals. The correct- 
ive and disciplinary tendency which love-given condi- 
tions, natural and supernatural, impose upon error and 
sin provides all persons with means of personal recupera- 
tion. The overmastering for good which love's world-sus- 
taining activities give to all objective results of finite action 
are but "that force not ourselves" which, as history wit- 
nesses, "makes for righteousness." Man's personal deter- 
mination in faith and love, cooperating with divine love 
in and around him., thus persists, not only as against the 
evil results of former abuses, but as counteracting, neu- 
tralizing, and outliving them. 

Again, if alongside of selfishness and in spite of its 
obstructions love is able to demonstrate its merits as a 
mode of self-determination it will successfully condition 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 233 

the mastery of limitations, and enlarge the scope of self- 
determination for individuals and communities who 
accept it, giving real progress. If it afford them, each 
and all, an altruistic self-love ; if it advance them to clearer 
knowledge of truth and wider dominance of pure inten- 
tion ; if it give them increasing susceptibility to unselfish 
motives, and aspirations to perfect personal character; 
if, in a word, it enable them to "partake of the divine 
nature,'' which is supreme devotion to perfection of being, 
then human self-love becomes like that of God, unsus- 
ceptible to selfishness, averse to all evil, and morally 
incapable of questioning the infinite merit of love or the 
entire demerit of sin. 

Further, if love can accomplish this demonstration, 
notwithstanding the utmost antagonism of sin, notwith- 
standing the strain, so to speak, which the free course of 
selfishness has put upon it, then love becomes self-con- 
scious in the universe as the nature of independence; 
proves itself to be perfect action in conditioned being by 
its self-sustained persistence. 

With this universal consciousness that love is perfect 
action will appear, also, that its ideal is absolute truth, 
that this truth is the ground of moral obligation, that 
ethical being, personality, is the highest mode of exist- 
ence, that a universe evolved by love is the perfect uni- 
verse, and that God is the unconditioned, infinite, perfect 
Person, who alone exists in his own right, and by whose 
grace, only, all finite beings exist — and, hence, to whom 
is due, by infinite obligation, the supreme love and confi- 
dence of all dependent persons. 

2. The opposite, or selfish, determination eliminates 
uncorrected evil by self-defeat and self-limitation. This 
is to say, that uncorrected selfishness and its corruption 
of conditions render those conditions retributive. 



234 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

Retribution is a change of conditions which results to 
conditioned persons either as reward or punishment, 
according as they determine. We have already recog- 
nized that justice is the lowest plane upon which love 
can be thought to condition the existence of persons. 
Hence, when individuals or communities, by selfish deter- 
mination, debase themselves and the general gracious 
environment beneath all susceptibility to recovery, and 
assure like debasement to all sincere persons who may 
appear among them — children and youth, for example — 
justice, the lowest form of love, must eliminate them from 
conditioning forces. When they render themselves unsus- 
ceptible to love, are morally incapable of faith or reform, 
love cannot permit them to condition the ruin of persons 
who, in these conditions, cannot but be overwhelmed. 
Furthermore, in this incorrigible character they are no 
longer objects of gracious recovery, and their continu- 
ance in such gracious conditions would indicate imbecility 
in divine love to maintain itself or sustain the innocent. 
They are objects of retribution. 

Retribution must in some way take place. But this 
does not necessarily imply that supernatural or miracu- 
lous infliction must intervene to punish obdurates. Nor 
does it imply a suspension or violation of their personal 
determination. On the contrary, it means that their con- 
ditions must change; or, rather, that they have, by self- 
perversion, wrecked their relations to the faith-condition- 
ing quality of divine love's activities in and around them. 
And it means that these activities have now become 
retributive by reason of their perversion and man's false 
attitude toward them. 

Retributive suffering is wholly a matter of abused con- 
ditions, whether those conditions are naturally or super- 
naturally given. All retributive suffering must come 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 235 

about as a revolution of conditions, natural or super- 
natural; and these revolutions are brought about by 
dependent persons themselves, in either their individual 
or collective capacities, or both. The material elements, 
fire, air, earth, water, though inestimable blessings in 
their use, are sources of unspeakable danger and calamity 
in their abuse. A man's attitude in relation to them must 
decide whether they shall be to him a blessing or a curse. 
So, also, the most intense conditions to human exaltation 
which divine love affords, naturally or supernaturally, 
must be made by man's self-perversion the most intense 
conditions to retribute disaster. Man may make them 
the home of peace and good will, or the den of beasts and 
fiends. In the former case peace, progress, ideal truth, 
and beauty will be realized by communities and individu- 
als ; in the latter they must perish. 

We recognize at this point that as the conditions of 
human life are in three general forms, or classes, men's 
retributive changes of condition are, correspondingly, 
three: (a) Race-retribution, (b) social, or community, 
retribution, (c) individual retribution. 

(a) The first class of conditions we term the race- 
conditions, according to which generations of individual 
beings have their successive continuance and qualities 
in common. It is not accurate to say that "man is born 
an animal," if we use the term "animal" as synonymous 
with "beast" or "brute." He is born a personal nature. 
The babe is not a mere animal nature upon which a per- 
sonal nature may be developed; no more than the tiny 
egg in the nest, out of which a humming-bird may be 
developed, is a seed from the honeysuckle. He is born 
a personal nature upon which self-determination may 
arise and develop conscious personality. But upon a 
brute nature, however perfect, a personal self-determina- 



236 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

tion can never be developed. There is no ground upon 
which to affirm that any such transition or evolution has 
ever taken place or may ever be expected to occur. The 
human race is a race of beings whose natures are con- 
ditions to personal self-determination — a race of personal 
natures. They are naturally animal only in the sense that 
they exist upon and have some common race conditions. 

The abuse of race conditions by any individual must 
debase those conditions for succeeding members of the 
race, just to the extent he may have race relationship to 
them. And if he happens to be the first of a family or 
tribe, or of the whole human race, his abuse of race con- 
ditions must deprave the nature of all his successors, 
unless there may be some method of amelioration. 

This debasing of racial conditions must also corrupt 
and impair the conditions of personal determination for 
both individuals and communities. And if, instead of 
resorting to ameliorating methods, his descendants con- 
tinue the abuse of their race conditions, this abuse must, 
if uncorrected, be ultimately self-limiting and self-defeat- 
ing — in other words, retributive by way of physical dis- 
orders, and the enfeeblement and death of individuals 
and communities as racial factors. 

Racial retribution is developed in various ways, espe- 
cially in disease, the shortening of the term of physical 
life, and in physical death. The implication of love at 
this point is clearly this: If the original adjustment of 
the race to its divinely appointed nature and environ- 
ment had been maintained — that is to say, if selfish self- 
determination had not been adopted by man, thereby 
abusing and perverting his nature and misadj listing it 
to his environment in racial respects — individual develop- 
ment would, ultimately, have transcended all race con- 
ditions. 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 237 

A change of environment, progressively, would also 
have been developed by the progress of the race socially. 
An individual transcendence of race nature, or an exalta- 
tion of that nature to higher capabilities and fitness must 
have resulted from individual progress in interaction with 
God. And, this interaction with God being a consider- 
able part of man's environment, his progress individually 
in harmonious interaction with God must have advanced 
the quality of that environment. Race relations having 
been used in the determination of higher relations to 
God, they must, themselves, have been eventually and 
wholly superseded. To pass to more intimate interaction 
and communion with Him who is purely a Spirit, and to 
determine within one's self a quality and degree of love 
which is free from physical or merely racial conditions, 
imply a change of environment. This change would 
correspond to that which physical death brings to "the 
faithful" in the present perverted conditions of our race 
nature. 

But though a change from physical conditions might 
have taken place in case of no maladjustment, but because 
of a personal development from original innocence by 
which the preseif 6£,dify conditions should be tran- 
scended, yet the fb-tfiei ■" implication remains that death, 
as we know it, is a .~„cftastrophe which has been precipi- 
tated by man's abuse of his nature and environment. The 
individual transcendence, or translation, of members of 
a sinless race may be thought as a sublimation quite 
exalting and glorious — quite other than death as we 
know it — 

Stretched in disease's shapes abhorred 
Or mown in battle by the sword. 

Such development, it is probable, may sometime obtain 
in the latest generations of men, when "they shall not 



238 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

die, but shall all be changed." Such change of individual 
conditions may be termed translation or exaltation, but 
not death. Death is a catastrophe, which, though it can- 
not prevent the passage of faithful persons to higher con- 
ditions of companionship with God, is, nevertheless, a 
horrid illustration of the self-limitation and self-defeat in 
racial evil. Physical death fastened upon racial conditions, 
while failing to intercept the persistent personal progress 
of the faithful, is but self-limitation and self-defeat to 
the selfish. 

This physical catastrophe which results from moral 
obliquity has, for aught anyone can see, become heredi- 
tary because the physical maladjustments, continued and 
multiplied, have been made hereditary. Nor can anyone 
affirm that if the human race, or any of its members, shall 
at any time recover complete readjustment to the Crea- 
tor's physical activities they may not find immunity from 
disease and death. A witty scoffer has said, "In a per- 
fect world good health, and not disease, should be catch- 
ing." And so it may, with perfect adjustment. 

To urge that physical death is natural, inasmuch as it 
prevails as a law in the natural relations of plants and 
animals, is nothing to the purpose fciice these have no 
discoverable object other than to/w^titute some of the 
conditions to the development of {. -rsonal life. 

Death by age or infirmity is the wearing out of the 
bodily energies by an attrition which, when in earlier 
ages it was less, occurred after longer periods than in 
the more complex and multiplied abuses of later genera- 
tions. 

That physical calamities, such as earthquakes, storms, 
etc., would have taken place, we do not dispute. But it 
is by no means certain that dangerous exposure to these 
things would ever have occurred had the propagation of 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 239 

the race and its spread upon the face of the earth pro- 
ceeded according to the promptings of a righteous adjust- 
ment to its environment. Whether the occasion be a 
Noachian deluge or the physical destruction of a Sodom 
there is every reason to believe that human exposure to 
these catastrophes might have been naturally avoided 
had the locating and pursuits of communities proceeded 
according to the promptings of a right adjustment of 
. man to his God-given conditions. Nor can it be denied 
that the appropriating the earth by men righteously 
might have proceeded in such a way, in all cases, as to 
find these physical convulsions harmlessly correlated with 
the progressive preparation of a fit environment for a 
progressive race. 

Death by want, war, or crime is avoidable by right- 
eousness, also ; would never have taken place but for self- 
ishness; and will cease among men through the persist- 
ence of love. 

In all this we can see nothing in physical death from 
either disease, old age, famine, violence, or physical catas- 
trophe which evinces that it is anything other than a 
change of environment hastened and rendered appalling, 
if not brought about, by the continuous maladjustment of 
man to his natural conditions — a change which love's 
evolution is made to effect by this maladjustment, and by 
which love avoids injustice in conditioning the personal 
determination of man. It is a calamity which no indi- 
vidual of the race can prevent in himself, for the reason 
that the maladjustment is racial. Though death by vio- 
lence is often immediately caused by individuals or com- 
munities, yet these causes take their rise from racial and 
social abuses. Ancestors have induced, largely, the indi- 
vidual's physical maladjustment. Its correction, like its 
induction, must be racial. It is a racial, not individual, 



2 4 o IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

retribution. It is a change of environment which can 
inflict no irreparable injustice upon the innocent, but pro- 
tects innocence from a fatal domination of corrupted 
conditions ; as, for example, the destruction of the inno- 
cent Canaanitish children by Joshua's army inflicted no 
spiritual, and therefore irreparable, injustice upon them, 
but protected them from spiritual, and therefore fatal, 
domination of the corrupted conditions in the midst of 
which they would have grown up. Death serves the cor- 
rective discipline of the corrigible; and it is retributive 
to the incorrigible only because his selfishness has persist- 
ently sought its good in these racial abuses, and sacrificed 
spiritual to racial conditions. 

The sum of what can be affirmed of this whole matter 
of physical death is this : There is that correlation in love's 
activities which conditions either the innocence, the pro- 
gressive development, the corrective chastisement, or the 
just retribution of man, as a race, a community, or an 
individual. But man determines which of these results 
it shall be. 

(b) Social retribution, or retribution to communities, 
is that revolution of this class of conditions which men, 
as communities, determine. Personal associations, grow- 
ing out of individual and racial conditions, and taking 
the form- of households, tribes, nations, or the entire 
population of the earth sometimes, we term communities. 
Persons determine themselves as communities as well as 
in their individual capacity. And, as communities modify 
the conditions of individuals, so do individuals modify 
the conditions of communities. Hence, the self-deter- 
mination of communities, as well as that of individuals, 
is susceptible to discipline and capable of progress or 
retrogression. Communities may be guilty of abusing 
their conditions, or they may properly use them; and, 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 241 

hence, are susceptible to the corrective tendencies of divine 
love, or may incorrigibly abuse those tendencies. Hence, 
the uncorrected selfishness of communities and its cor- 
ruption of conditions are eliminated by self -limitation and 
self-defeat. 

The worth and strength to persist of any type of society 
or civilization consists in the degree to which it conserves 
the conditions to individual personal progress. Accord- 
ing to this criterion communities must progress or retro- 
grade; must go forward or backward. If they go for- 
ward the general scope of individual freedom, consistent 
with harmony and security, is enlarged. If they go back- 
ward individual progress is repressed. Hence, the meas- 
ure to zvhich communities condition the progress of indi- 
viduals in self-perfection is the criterion according to 
which these communities must rise or fall. Thus moral 
resources constitute the only disinfectant which can pre- 
vent the social, civic, and material decay of a community. 
However great may be the development of mental and 
material resources in a community, their abuse, impair- 
ment, and ultimate destruction must — and, according to 
history, do — follow upon the neglect or corruption of 
moral resources. 

Progress in the development of mental and mpral 
resources may be attained to a degree by the efforts of 
both the righteous and unrighteous — jointly, though 
from different motives. The righteous by altruistic en- 
deavor, the unrighteous from motives of power, gain, 
and pleasure, will together elaborate utilities and advance 
wealth and refinement. But because of this difference of 
motives these objective advantages are, to the former, 
occasions for higher determination of faith and love; to 
the latter they are occasions for a more inveterate and 
complex selfishness. With the one they tend to unifica- 



242 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

tion ; with the other, to segregation. The preponderance 
of the better element tends to the preservation and order 
of society, but the prevalence of the bad is the prelude to 
disorder and disaster. Though under the impulse of 
virtuous motives a nation may rise from barbarism to 
civilization, from civilization to refinement, yet if its 
moral resources become neglected or corrupted it will pass 
from refinement to' effeminacy and thence to barbarism 
again. The whole conflict of the ages is reducible to that 
of the spiritual and the physical man — faith and selfish- 
ness ; and in every case in which society has fully yielded 
to the dominance of selfishness decay and disaster have 
followed. 

The amenities of divine love, in and around them, the 
prolonged mercy of God, and the amplified advantages 
incident to the general progress are appropriated by the 
selfish; and, instead of this "goodness of God leading 
(them) to repentance," they make it their opportunity 
for continued' and adept determination in selfishness. 
Thus selfish society, as such, must attain incorrigibility in 
wickedness. Though, like Babylon and the Roman em- 
pire, nations may require centuries to work out their dis- 
solution, it is inevitable. 

Divergence, clear and radical, as between individuals 
and communities, and as between communities and na- 
tions, must result from these two lines of social self- 
determination. The data of faith which are implicit in 
the original conditions of our being must become explicit 
in the life and practice of the faithful. Hence, the an- 
tagonism to these conditions must become pronounced 
in the life and practice of the selfish. The self-developed 
persistence of a life of love based on faith, on the one 
hand, and the constructive persistence of selfish life based 
upon the sufferance of divine mercy and the patience of 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 243 

the faithful, on the other hand, must result in the diver- 
gence of these two elements in society, politics, and trade. 
The faithful must become radically so ; the wicked, more 
confirmed and implacable in wickedness. 

A crisis must be brought about by the essential antag- 
onism of the two becoming thus sharply defined. Though 
an endurable balance of influences may delay a crisis for 
a long time, and the hopes of the faithful and the fears 
of the wicked may construct temporary conciliations and 
conventions, yet, inevitably, the rupture must come, when 
the pure must renounce the vile, the vile detest the pure. 

These crises must come to individuals, neighborhoods, 
nations, and eventually to the entire population of the 
earth. To individuals it may be as an outlaw forsaking 
the associations and restraints of a well-ordered com- 
munity ; or as a Noah, Abraham, Lot, Timon, Luther, or 
Roger Williams ; the Huguenots, or Puritans, separating 
themselves from incorrigible social, civic, or religious cor- 
ruption or oppression. Or it may be the vileness of public 
sentiment crucifying Jesus or crushing by violence a 
Socrates, a Jeremiah, a Stephen, a Paul, a Huss, or a 
Savonarola. 

To communities and nations these crises bring either 
revolution or overthrow. "Revolutions never go back- 
ward" is a true saying only because wickedness, even in 
prosperity and dominance, works its own defeat; while 
the data of faith and the self-sustained resources of love 
persist. Such crises must be limited or far-reaching in 
proportion as the issue is developed in greater or smaller 
forms of collective life. That faith gains and selfishness 
loses, essentially, in every revolution implies that the 
antagonism is widening in area. 

That revolutions never go backward evinces also the 
progressive tendency of the race toward the ultimate tri- 



244 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

umph of love and the final failure and defeat of evil. 
Progress from the segregation and subsequent antago- 
nism which have prevailed by reason of selfishness, toward 
harmony and love among peoples, foreshadows the ulti- 
mate community of interest and association of all the 
nations of the earth. The common weal will embrace 
not only the people of one tongue or land, but the entire 
population of our planet, at the time. This will be the 
necessary result of that age-long struggle between love 
and selfishness, upon their respective merits and demerits, 
in which love, based upon faith, will have amplified human 
freedom and harmony, and the aggressive benevolence 
of exalted individual and national character will have 
gathered up into one the interests of all men. 

Selfishness will doubtless make, upon this wide arena, 
long and stubborn contention for persistence. But here, 
more than ever before, the divergence between love-based 
society and that based upon selfishness must become 
sharply discriminated, their antagonism recognized and 
actively pressed on all hands — the righteous unequivocally 
righteous, the wicked implacably, virulently wicked. The 
supreme crisis of human history must come. 

The merit of love, demonstrated in human progress, 
will leave no pretext or ruse for selfishness, the selfish 
must choose selfishness in undisguised self-degradation. 
The failure and turpitude of selfishness, demonstrated, 
must expose its devotees to universal shame and contempt. 

This culmination is not only the relentless behest of 
ontology, but the common goal of all the forces, social, 
political, commercial, and religious, which have shaped 
and continue to shape human history. 

Each form of this crisis, domestic, national, or of the 
entire population of the earth, is a form of adjudication, 
a conscious realization of results, and the beginning of 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 245 

a harvest up to which former sowing and growth have 
led. 

If results could show that a finite person, and com- 
munities of finite persons, realize a higher and better 
determination by selfish devotement than they can by 
supreme devotion to that true, that ideal life which is 
implicit in their love-given natural conditions, then self- 
ishness might win for itself a valid right to exist as the 
supreme devotement of personal being ; win a valid stand- 
ing as self-determining action; and become a self-con- 
scious excellence. 

But since selfishness, in even its greatest prosperity, 
fails of self-conscious excellence the universe is without 
the consciousness that evil has a right to exist. This has 
become more definite as society has progressed. 

Further : Since selfish action increases the limitations 
of dependent persons and decreases the scope and power 
of their self-determination, thereby reducing their free- 
dom and sinking them toward complete dependence ; since 
it despoils them of susceptibility to progressive motives, 
sinks them into degrading affections and desires, render- 
ing them mutually destructive in their ambition ; since 
it reduces individuals and communities to conditions in 
which existence is either but a doubtful good or positivel} 
worse than nonbeing; since, in a word, it proves only 
degrading and disastrous it is not only a self-conscious 
failure and must perish, but a self-conscious crime, a 
universal outlaw, and deserves to perish. The magnitude 
of the interests which it would thwart, and of the motives 
against which it offends, being infinite, render it con- 
scious of infinite turpitude. 

This is the true "survival of the fittest" — a survival 
which illustrates that love, perfect action, is the fittest; 
that it is self-persistent and must survive evermore ; and 



246 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

that its qualities, holiness, truth, and righteousness, con- 
stitute the fittest personal character. And each crisis 
illustrates the faith which cancels selfishness and trusts 
love and its qualities to realize the highest good because 
they are in themselves the fittest. "The survival of the 
fittest" is only another phrasing of what the sacred Scrip- 
tures term "the judgment." Either phrasing embraces, 
essentially, three ideas: crisis, criterion, and retribution, 
or change of conditions. Judgment necessarily implies 
authority — natural, basal, intrinsic authority; and this 
is the authority of an independent criterion. It is inde- 
pendent, not because of power to destroy, but because of 
its power to be perfect — because of qualitative perfection. 
It is authoritative because perfect, fittest because of per- 
fect quality, of perfect quality because it is perfect action, 
perfectly adjusted being. 

It cannot be affirmed the fittest "because it produced 
the greatest possible good or pleasure," as the utilitarian 
or agnostic would say. None but the infinite mind per- 
ceives what can produce the greatest possible good or 
pleasure. With finite minds this is altogether a matter 
of inference and faith. It is faith in God as perfection 
which leads the faithful man to expect that love will yield 
the highest possible good. The proof of his faith he finds, 
not in grasping a knowledge of the highest good, but in 
the effect of faith upon his inner life, affording perfection 
of intention (holiness) and progress in self-determina- 
tion. And now, in addition to this inner assurance of 
faith, there comes, in the final crisis of a community which 
embraces earth's entire population, the wreck of evil 
society to give objective demonstration that selfishness is 
not only not the fittest, but that it is wholly unfit to exist, 
and, hence, never had a right to exist. And at the same 
time it is demonstrated that of all the forces and qualities 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 247 

ever known to man, love, based on faith in God, as the 
perfect, is self-persistent, self-progressive, self-perfecting. 
It actualizes the ideal community. 

Thus, on the earth, motivity to selfishness zvill be ulti- 
mately abolished. Human love, purified and exalted upon 
the basis of faith in God, will have developed the ideal 
community for this earth. The society of the faithful in 
its progress will more keenly apprehend, more strikingly 
perceive, and interact with the activities of God's all-con- 
ditioning love. With this will have been regained the 
true and highest use of their environment. 

No motivity to evil can survive this solution. No 
motive, nothing but obdurate aversion to holiness, fixed 
unsusceptibility to truth and right, self-determined limi- 
tation to selfish motives, can remain as incitement to evil. 
This does not necessarily imply that the whole mass, or 
even a large proportion, of earthly society will have 
become faithful. The implication is that such will have 
been the progress determined upon these divergent lines, 
love and selfishness, that, however large or small their 
numbers, the respective parties will have become so widely 
differentiated that the excellence of one and the worth- 
lessness and turpitude of the other will strip selfishness 
of all motivity, and, hence, of all power to tempt the inno- 
cent and ignorant. Those who maintain evil society must 
do so upon no profession but incorrigible aversion to love, 
and devotion to selfishness. Hence, their retribution must 
ensue. 

The breaking up of selfish society must naturally result. 
Selfishness, now all-dominating, openly pronounced and 
socially isolated, its followers must be without the re- 
straints of good society among themselves, but like a den 
of beasts are left to mutual destruction. 

Further, supernatural conditions may now develop 



248 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

their full force. This final divergence of society will have 
been reached upon the basis of supernatural conditions 
which have republished and supplemented the natural 
data of faith by the Christ revelation of the facts — the 
being, the independent supremacy, the holiness, and the 
benevolence of God. These conditions have been abused 
and perverted to the purpose of this final incorrigibility. 
Hence, we are carried by ontological implication to the 
fulfillment of the seer's vision of either the explicit im- 
manence, or the perceptible presence of the Christ; the 
glory of whose coming shall consume the wicked. 

Although human perversions had dimmed these data of 
faith, as naturally revealed in the human consciousness, 
dependent life, self-love, reason, conscience, and will, 
they have been reaffirmed supernaturally as "a witness 
unto all nations"; and now in the culmination of their 
full development they constitute forces which are as 
necessarily retributive to selfish society as the white heat 
of the refiner's furnace is resolvent to reject and cast out 
the dross. 

This is the final revolution of social conditions, the 
final disaster to organized selfishness among men. Indi- 
vidual defection may possibly arise among men after 
this revolution which leaves all social organization har- 
monious and morally pure. But the social conditions 
upon which such defection may arise must imply that it 
will soon run its course and doubly emphasize the failure 
and crime of selfishness. Thus upon the social conditions 
afforded by divine love self-limitation and self-defeat 
will rid the earth of selfish society. 

(c) Individual retribution, like racial and social, is 
simply a revolution of personal conditions brought about 
by individual use or abuse of those conditions. It is not 
to be thought as a resentful infliction which God may 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 249 

arbitrarily impose or withhold, but as a result which must 
be implied in a collision with love, the nature of the all- 
conditioning God. 

The decay and disaster which befall families, peoples, 
nations, and the race, as such, do not necessarily involve 
the personal retribution of individuals, except to the 
extent of their relations to these collective bodies. Many 
innocent and many positively righteous individuals, such 
as children, parents, creditors, or citizens, suffer in the 
wreck of those collective relations, but not in the fortunes 
of individual character. Many noble lives are burdened 
and physically and mentally limited by the abuse of 
former generations, but their individual faith or pure 
intention is not thereby prevented. Yet the decay or 
overthrow of collective associations illustrates the same 
principle which must obtain in the individual relation to 
the same all-conditioning force, infinite love. The down- 
fall of Rome, "childless and crownless in her voiceless 
woe/' and the despair of the pleasure-seeker, the infidel 
scoffer, or the man of either crude or cultured selfishness, 
alike incapable of faith, are subject to the same retribu- 
tive principle. The main difference between man's ret- 
ribution in his collective capacities, and that of individual 
concern, is that the dissolution of collective organiza- 
tions, as such, ends their collective self-determination, 
and hence concludes their retribution; while individuals 
retain their self-determining power in the midst of social 
and even physical dissolution. Either they are capable of 
a yet unrealized ideal life, or their selfishness is not yet 
satisfied nor repented. Hence, change of their racial or 
social conditions does not interrupt their personal being. 

A future state of individual relation to God and the 
universe persists in our thought. It is not necessary to 
elaborate an argument, here, on a future state. For, of 



250 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

course, if there be no future life for man our solution of 
evil is complete with racial and social retribution. Many- 
reasons, aside from revelation, have been given for belief 
in a future state, but usually the essential reason is over- 
looked. It is as follows : 

Love implies a future state for persons. We readily 
see that when the Creator posits the existence of a person 
he forms the conditions for a self-determining power, 
and commits himself, in honor and truth, to the main- 
tenance of these conditions as long as that self-determina- 
tion exists. And, although this self-determining being 
may revolutionize those conditions in relation to himself, 
and render them retributive, they must continue as long 
as he can determine their use or abuse. Since from the 
beginning of man's sinful determination love's condition- 
ing action has been at his service, it cannot be withdrawn 
while he entertains a self-determining purpose concerning 
it. He must upon these conditions be permitted to work 
out that purpose so long as he is conscious of it. We 
say "must" for the reason that creative love cannot be 
thought to draw back from any possible result to which 
it is committed by the original choice to condition the 
existence of persons. Love's conditioning action is put 
into their hands by virtue of affording them personality ; 
and, hence, their self-determination must be permitted to 
work out its own purpose. By creating free beings love 
submitted to their proof of its possible worst as well as 
its possible best. If, in the lowest depths of self-degrada- 
tion, a dependent person can develop aught which imr 
peaches love's truth, or goodness; aught which indorses 
or connives at selfishness or wrong; aught of essential 
imperfection, then love is impeached throughout. Its 
right to create, or morally dominate, a universe is fairly 
disputed. Its morally authoritative basis for personal 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 251 

determination is exploded; and selfishness has gained 
standing ground as a principle upon which personal 
character may be rightfully determined. To create beings 
of conditioned self-determination implies the continuance 
of the conditions as long as that determination is self- 
conscious, whether it be in moral harmony or disharmony 
with the conditioning action. The same principles upon 
which the evolution of love conditions the continuance of 
a race of self-determining sinners in this life are those 
upon which it must continue to condition their sinful 
self-determination, notwithstanding physical dissolution. 
Moreover, in the case of the faithful, physical dissolu- 
tion finds them in essential harmony with divine love and 
in process of progressive self-determination. In many 
cases, too, their conscious steadfastness in love and fixed 
aversion to evil have been achieved. Such has been the 
trial of their faith that subjection of the actual to the ideal 
life has become habitual with them long before death; 
it has been the high standpoint from, which they have 
performed their duties and endured their ills. One who 
could say of his practical life, "One thing I do, forgetting 
the things which are behind, and stretching forward to 
the things which are before, I press on toward the goal 
unto the prize of the high calling of God," is entirely 
philosophic when, summoned to execution, he says, 
"Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteous- 
ness." The confidence of Socrates was not an illusion 
of the imagination, but the conscious persistence of a 
life of devotion to the ideal which led him to say to his 
weeping friends, "You may dispose of my body as you 
like, but I shall be with the gods." The divine philoso- 
phy, as expressed in view of persecution for righteous- 
ness' sake, is this : "He that hateth his life in this world 
shall keep it unto life eternal." 



252 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

We have seen in a former chapter that the self-deter- 
mined freedom, harmony, and security of the universe 
are the essential qualities of its perfection, and are the 
conditions to the highest good which love can evolve. 
Hence, the persons who in this life have achieved these 
qualities, or are in a way to determine them, are among 
the agents who alone can actually accomplish the purpose 
of the universe. Persons who have attained these quali- 
ties, or are in an attitude to attain them, and have, 
by physical death, cast off their physical heritage of 
racial abuses, have simply gained the starting point for 
untrammeled personal progress. And so long as the 
innocent and the faithful who must determine the uni- 
verse can amplify their personal freedom, can determine 
a higher development, can aspire to a yet unrealized ideal 
self, or attain a higher good, love, the nature of that 
divine action which conditions their being, implies their 
immortality. This is but the process of realizing the 
divine altruism ; which, being based on the perfect altru- 
istic freedom of God, is the limitless measure of universal 
good. 

As to children, we may say: At what time in an indi- 
vidual career conscious self-determination takes its rise 
is difficult if not impossible to detect. But when it does 
arise it is the beginning of the individual use of one's per- 
sonal nature — the actual differentiation of individual 
from racial life. We may definitely observe evidences of 
conscious self-determination in infants, yet this cannot 
be assumed to indicate their earliest, even pre-natal, con- 
scious individuality or will. If the infant have a history 
preceding the rise of self-determination it is a period in 
which it cannot be thought to have developed any but 
racial life. Not having exerted an act of self-determina- 
tion, it does not become conscious of individual identity, 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 253 

or selfhood. Hence, should physical death take place, 
which is simply a form of racial retribution, a catas- 
trophe to race conditions, it suffers no individual retribu- 
tion. Indeed, we know of no implication or datum, of 
any kind, upon which we can affirm that such pre-personal 
infancy can survive physical death, can live in a future 
state. 

After self-determining action is once begun, however 
faintly, the personal nature is individualized, and indi- 
vidual self-consciousness takes its rise, and retains per- 
sonal identity through all subsequent changes; until by 
self-determined abuse of the personal nature it may be 
sunken in complete self-limitation and ultimately lost. 
The rise and earlier development of infantile personality 
is doubtless, in accordance with circumstances and in- 
stinctive impulses^ and trusts its conditions with entire 
sincerity. This is the faith of childhood; and it main- 
tains the innocence of childhood, although these circum- 
stances and impulses upon which it acts may have been 
depraved by ancestry and social causes. Its debased 
racial conditions may impose upon it disease, feebleness, 
defective physical organization, or death ; and social sur- 
roundings may afford it little but villainous incitements. 
Yet the implicit sincerity with which it personally acts in 
accordance with its conditions is an innocent, yes, virtu- 
ous, use of its personal nature, and determines its charac- 
ter as one of innocent and virtuous intention. Not until it 
is sufficiently advanced to deliberately and of purpose 
reject pure intention and adopt selfish intention does it 
abuse its personal conditions and form corrupt character. 
Hence, if retribution in its racial or social conditions 
overtake it while in this character of individual innocence 
it must be thought to continue into a future state as an 
innocent person of morally pure intention. It takes rank 



254 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

with that class of beings whose further development will 
be in the absence of temptation, who "do always behold 
the face of God," who must depend upon environment for 
consciousness of moral security until it is acquired by 
association with those whose conscious security has been 
self-determined within an environment of "much tribu- 
lation." 

When a child is sufficiently advanced in a knowledge 
of his conditions to recognize the moral criterion of inten- 
tions in conscience he may then have a self-conscious 
faith ; he may then determine to subject himself to what 
he understands to be true ; and may feel, as a result, that 
this faith purifies or keeps pure his intentions as he ad- 
vances upon an ever-widening scope of self-determination. 
Although he may not grasp a logical definition of faith, 
yet just as surely does he enact "the subjection of the 
actual to the ideal life" ; and just as surely does he cancel 
selfishness and lovingly determine himself toward spirit- 
ual harmony, freedom, and security. 

On the other hand, a child at this age of personal 
advancement may begin a course of deliberate rejection 
of conscience and faith ; and in case death intervenes his 
appearance in a future state must be thought that of a 
person suffering individual retribution. His conscious- 
ness of the magnitude of his motives to good, which he 
has rejected, must be the measure of his retribution. 

In adults, individual persistence in a selfish life may 
be, in many cases, but an idle and undiscriminating drift- 
ing with circumstances. And it may thus take the form 
of a merely racial life or result in the ultimate sinking of 
personal consciousness into the helpless dependence of a 
mere thing. This view assumes that there are persons 
who are so entirely content with the satisfaction of barely 
physical needs, and whose interest in their existence is 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 255 

so far below the normal aspirations of a child, that they 
fail to discriminate themselves as other than parts of a 
common herd. They live and die without reflection as 
to any definite purpose of individual life or destiny. This 
may be largely owing to circumstances and their weak- 
ness to rise above circumstances, even to the extent of 
asserting their individual responsibility of any kind or 
degree. Though they may have felt at some time the 
assertion of conscience, yet this has been so habitually 
yielded to the behest of circumstances that it is prac- 
tically swamped. 

The consciousness of guilt in such persons must be 
faint, and the consciousness of moral sincerity equally 
indefinite. They seem conscious of nothing which could 
be termed self-determination except a weak surrender to 
natural impulse as influenced by circumstances. Per- 
sonality is surrendered during racial life, and racial life 
yielded in physical death. The opportunity of personal 
determination, like the talent hid in the ground, is soon 
forfeited and they perish. 

If one live merely a racial life he lives only as a brute 
lives, and his may be termed a brute life. The essential 
difference between brute life and personal life is that a 
brute lives for its nature while a person lives for a mode, 
or type, of life which he can build upon his nature ; using 
his nature as means and conditions by which to determine 
its qualities. The sum of these qualities is character. By 
persistence in this action he fixes his character, or quality, 
of life upon so much of his nature as does not perish in 
the using. This modified nature becomes the means for 
the further development of character; and thus, eventu- 
ally, self-determination may realize perfect conditioned 
personality. Brute life is living for his nature, to follow 
its impulses and make the satisfaction of its desires the 



256 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

object of life. While this is, perhaps, the most crude 
form of incorrigible selfishness it is readily eliminated by 
self-limitation and self-defeat. 

There are other classes of persons whose selfishness is 
devoted to living for their nature in its intellectually 
higher and more ambitious propensions. Nevertheless, 
they live for their nature, as an end, ignoring the truth 
that it is but the means for attaining a higher type of life 
which they may superadd, and into which all of their 
nature which does not perish with the using should be 
incorporated. Many of this class give a quasi recognition 
to the facts disclosed in their natures, and which afford 
a basis for faith — the perceived facts of being and depend- 
ence, and the implied fact of the Independent which we 
cannot get rid of, and also self-love, reason, conscience, 
and will. They harbor, also, an expectation to act, some- 
time, in accordance with these data of faith ; but, living 
in present neglect of the great object of personal life, they 
devote themselves to the immediate satisfaction of natural 
appetite, passion, and propension. Although they may 
be highly intelligent and do often possess great will- 
force, their life is only a highly endowed animalism. 
This for the reason that they are devoted to the satisfy- 
ing of their present selves, and are rejecting the true, 
the ideal self which their reason and conscience tell them 
they ought to actualize. Their character is deliberately 
self-determined selfishness; and, consequently, the inter- 
vention of physical death removes them hence with char- 
acters of uncorrected sin. Dying without having actual- 
ized their quasi expectation to "sometime," as a matter 
of convenience, turn to repentance and faith, they must 
be thought to have entered upon a future state of retri- 
bution. Obdurately impenitent while enjoying immunity 
from retribution, their quasi intention to sometime reform 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 257 

for convenience' sake is only a selfish forecast which can 
never be capable of faith. It is simply a form of incor- 
rigibility. 

Incorrigible selfishness, definitely purposed, is brought 
about by habitually putting aside the authority of con- 
science, diverting the attention from it, and thus deter- 
mining fixed unsusceptibility to motives of faith and love. 
The person who can choose to continue in selfishness at 
any stage or reject love in any degree of its incentives 
is capable of persisting also in his choice of selfishness, 
and of rejecting love at that stage when he knows that 
the one is wholly false and the other true. This is total 
moral incorrigibility; the total abuse of his conditions. 
Thus continuance in sin until the incorrigible stage is 
reached is clearly practicable. 

Prior to this, even when the false tendency of sin and 
the true tendency of love are perceived, he must abandon 
the one and adopt the other, or else must deliberately 
choose antagonism to love. Persistence in this choice 
determines his perversion of the conditions of individual 
faith, and must establish in his nature a fixed aversion 
to love. If, in the experience or observation of any indi- 
vidual, community, or age, fixed indifference to the moral 
behest of love has been reached, there can be no motivity 
to their self-determination except the desire of selfish 
satisfaction. 

Such indifference seems wholly a matter of purposed 
practical infidelity — infidelity to the truth, and positive 
aversion to holiness and God. To this aversion the 
undeviating activities of love which condition him must 
be a constant offense; and in changed circumstances, 
when he can no longer make all-conditioning love serve 
his selfishness, it must be to him torture. 

Selfishness, for the reason that it is self-love perverted 



258 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

into opposition to self-perfection and the perfection of 
others, finds its supreme object of aversion in God. Nor 
can such a person repent his selfishness from any other 
motive than its unpleasurable results ; and this, of course, 
is not moral repentence at all ; has in it no moral contri- 
tion, no motive but selfishness. That a person thus self- 
ishly determined will regret his disaster cannot be 
doubted, but selfish incitement to> this regret cannot be 
thought to work moral purifying. He is still morally 
incorrigible. 

Previous to a retributive change of conditions selfish 
motives may be appealed to for the purpose of arousing 
attention to the moral enormity of sin. This is possible 
so long as the authority of conscience is not discarded, 
and may incite to genuine repentance. But to a person 
in whom selfishness has reached the point of self-deter- 
mined indifference to the data of faith, especially the 
demand of conscience, there can be no remedial or recov- 
ering conditions. 

Future Probation. — The question arises at this point 
whether persons, after having by physical death under- 
gone racial retribution, must be subject to individual 
retribution ; and whether this is necessarily implied in 
love? Or may they not continue in probationary con- 
ditions, individually, notwithstanding physical death has 
removed them from the racial and social conditions of 
this life? Or, again, may all-conditioning love imply 
individual probation in a future state? 

The answer to this question cannot include the case of 
children nor of multitudes of adults, who, innocent of self- 
determined rejection of love, have passed into a future 
life of development in the "presence of God." Doubt- 
less these will occupy conditions to development, but 
not in a sense which implies the moral possibility of faiU 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 259 

tire or defection. Their conditions will be those of over- 
whelming motives to love and entire absence of tempta- 
tion to evil, because associated with the innocent and the 
faithful, and freed from corrupt racial and social con- 
ditions. But such conditions will afford no proving by 
self-determined conquest of their natural susceptibility 
to selfishness. Nor can such conditions yield a conscious- 
ness of moral security as against supposable temptation 
to sin, except as such consciousness may be eventually 
acquired by association with those who have, through 
discipline of evil, determined their security for them- 
selves. 

It has been urged : If the children go to "the presence 
of God" directly why does not God have them all die, 
and thus end the continuance of the race in the sinful 
conditions of this life ? This is equivalent to asking, Why 
have a human race at all? The answer to all this is: 
The evolution of that ultimate security in personal har- 
mony and freedom, which is essential to the perfection of 
the universe, can be attained only by the development of 
an unsusceptibility to selfishness by the determination 
of finite persons themselves. The self -elimination of one's 
susceptibility to evil is requisite to a perfect personality, 
and hence to the perfect universe. Absence of tempta- 
tions or incitements to evil may secure the harmony of 
innocent or unfallen beings, but it cannot develop the 
highest order of moral character, for the reason that sus- 
ceptibility to evil temptation may remain in them ; at least 
they can have no consciousness of perfect security in them- 
selves, as against possible temptation. To this class of per- 
sons may belong angels who have ever "kept their first 
estate," and children who die and enter upon association 
with persons and influences termed "angels who always 
behold the face of God," before they have consciously 



2 6o IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

renounced their sense of dependence, perverted their self- 
love, and rejected the authority of conscience. But these 
alone, and in these conditions, can never realize a perfect 
finite being or universe. Perfect harmony of persons 
can be realized only by beings of perfect moral freedom ; 
and perfect moral freedom can be realized only in the 
consciousness of perfect moral security ; and this security 
can be realized only by the self-elimination, or neutraliza- 
tion, of personal susceptibility to selfishness, and this 
susceptibility can be eliminated only by the person himself 
in confirmed faith and love ; and this confirmed faith and 
love cannot be inherited or imparted as a natural endow- 
ment by the Creator, but can only be attained by the exer- 
cise and discipline of years in experienced overcoming 
of temptation to selfishness. 

Angels, infants, and innocent heathen may see and 
associate with the faithful, who have determined their 
own security, and may thus attain ultimately a like se- 
curity. But this is not probation, in the sense in which 
the term is used by the advocates of that doctrine, but is 
only the development of these classes into this unsuscepti- 
bility by observation, association, influence of and sym- 
pathy with the faithful who* constitute the nucleus and 
"main body" of the perfect universe by having deter- 
mined their own conscious security against selfishness. 

But we return to the question : Is a future state neces- 
sarily thought one of individual retribution? That ret- 
ribution is a revolutionary change of conditions we have 
already seen. That physical death is such a change, 
not only of race conditions, but also of social and indi- 
vidual environment, must be admitted. Now, must pas- 
sage into a "future state" imply a loss of all conditions 
to personal correction and recovery to the individual who 
has been unrepentantly or incorrigibly selfish in this life? 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 261 

We do not aim, here, to give an extended argument; 
especially is it aside from the method of this work to 
invoke scriptural exposition. Our answer must aim to 
give the implications of love, which, at this stage of its 
evolution, are decisive of the question. 

We have seen that divine love, by creating dependent 
persons, requires that the rise of their personality must 
be conditioned at the lowest point at which progressive 
self-determination is possible. Now, if this racial and 
social life affords the lowest and easiest conditions which 
all-conditioning love can posit for the rise, progress, and 
perfecting of finite persons, then the debasement of indi- 
vidual life in these conditions must be thought such a 
debasement as to be totally unsusceptible to the influence 
of any conditions to personal improvement which love 
can ever afford. To those who have perverted and 
debased these lowest conditions of personal development 
physical death must be thought a change which renders 
them conscious of conditions more desperate and hope- 
less. By no line of reasoning can we conclude that the 
abuse of our present nature can result in improved, more 
susceptible, future nature. And if individuals continue 
to debase these conditions which are most favorable to 
progressive motives, perverting them from the moral sus- 
ceptibility of childhood innocence to self-determined 
depravity, death must be to them a change to a radical 
and hopeless maladjustment toward love and God. 

The present bodily conditions must be thought requisite 
means by which man begins and in this life continues his 
personal interaction with divine love, whether that love 
be naturally or supernaturally disclosed to him. By 
means of this interaction with divine love he is able to 
enter upon the lowest conditions of faith ; and upon faith 
he becomes able to love God, and determines himself in 



262 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

harmony with God. If physical death takes place at any 
point in the process of this innocent or faithful self- 
determination he continues in harmonious interaction 
with God, notwithstanding the falling away of bodily 
conditions. He must be classed with disembodied persons 
who are in either innocent or faithful harmony with love 
in the future state. 

But if, while in these bodily conditions, he has deter- 
mined himself selfishly he must be thought as not only 
out of harmony with love, but as morally below the low- 
est form of faith. As long as he is in possession of 
bodily conditions he has contact with the means of cor- 
rection and recovery to the lowest stage of faith; and 
may begin again the process of faithful self-determina- 
tion. But if physical death supervenes when by selfish- 
ness he is sunken to the lowest point at which faith may 
arise he is left without means or conditions of correction 
or recovery to the lowest form of faith. He must be 
thought a disembodied person to whom faith is impractic- 
able; hence, is incapable of corrective chastisement and 
harmonization with love. There is no need of talking 
about any means of moral purifying or development other 
than faith; and if the lowest forms of faith can arise 
only upon those conditions which divine love affords as 
the lowest upon which personal determination may arise, 
it is clear that the lowest forms of faith are impossible 
without those conditions. As long as he is in this body, 
aided by its needs and its racial and social sympathies 
of faith and love, as also by the direct incarnation and 
personal declaration of divine love in Christ, he has con- 
tact with the conditions to spiritual recovery. But, dis- 
embodied, this bridge between his self-degraded spirit and 
the conditions to faith and love is gone. 

"But if a supernatural intervention, as in Christ, avails 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 263 

to give renewed conditions of faith to depraved men in 
this life may not divine love imply further supernatural 
revelations which may in a future world afford conditions 
of saving faith to those, at least, who have died unre- 
pentant ?" 

This plausible query is neutralized by the following 
considerations, namely: It is based upon a misconcep- 
tion of the Christ-revelation, which sought, not the obdu- 
rate, but the ignorant and degraded. Secondly, he who 
has determined positive aversion to faith, in himself, 
has no susceptibility which any revelation can incite to 
spiritual reform. When, by racial defilement and social 
perversion, the natural motives to individual faith have 
been obscured from those who are yet susceptible, super- 
natural interposition reiterates them. These motives to 
faith, always implicit in man's nature, are the grounds 
upon which mankind always praise or blame each other. 
They are never replaced as motives to moral purifying. 
No supposed revelation which ignores them can make 
good its claim to divine origin. What were the ancient 
disclosures of Jehovah, the independent, holy, and gra- 
cious, or guiding the retributive storm of abused and 
revolutionized conditions, but the reiteration of these 
natural data of faith ? What were the words and works 
of Christ but reminders of the dependence of man and 
the independence of truth, moral authority, and merciful 
solicitude of God? All supernatural revelation has its 
value in maintaining man's recognition of these motives 
to faith. 

Moreover, if it is a fact that supernatural intervention 
is to renew and intensify the motivity to faith in this 
life, that fact implies a negative answer to the above 
query. If, in a future state, better conditions to faith 
may be had by the selfish, then all supernatural revelation 



264 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

in this world, including the ministry and atonement of 
Christ, are superfluous and are discredited. The incar- 
nation of God in Christ, assuming our racial and social 
conditions as a medium of contact with our race, implies 
that these are needed to condition saving faith. When 
physical death removes our bodily conditions this medium 
is lost. The evolution of love had, doubtless, developed 
the conditions to individual self-determination in their 
essential order; and if self-determination has sunken the 
person's susceptibility beneath the lowest, simplest, and 
most direct conditions to faith he cannot be thought more 
susceptible to them in the more advanced stages of that 
evolution. 

Obdurate selfishness in this life, as against these con- 
ditions, sinks the personal susceptibility to them, and 
establishes aversion toward them. Hence, it renders the 
person incapable of corrective probation, though heaven 
and hell were perceptibly open before him. The chasm 
between his self-determined unsusceptibility to< the ideal 
and the higher conditions to the realization of an ideal 
life must be thought impassable. In a word, he has 
sunken his capability for saving faith below the lowest 
conditions to such faith. 

It is the enlightened selfishness of this world that is 
the most obdurate. Those who are selfish amid the most 
highly intellectual conceptions of the ideal are the most 
incapable of faith. This incapability is owing to the 
widened chasm between their intelligent discrimination 
of an ideal life and their sunken susceptibility to its 
motives, induced by selfish self-determination. Those 
who are not won to a life of faith when young rarely are 
when old — owing to the widened discrepancy between 
their debased susceptibilities and the motives to faith. 
The discrepancy between the selfish affections of the 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 265 

obdurate and love's higher disclosures in the future is 
a chasm which our thought cannot bridge. Nothing but 
an undebatable revelation from God can afford ground 
for a belief that it is possible. 

We find, therefore, no ground upon which to hope, 
much less affirm possible conditions in a future state in 
which the impenitent of this present life may become sus- 
ceptible to motives to faith and love. But as their selfish 
life has narrowed the scope of their moral freedom, in- 
creased their limitations, and diminished their person- 
ality we can neither affirm nor hope anything better for 
them than a gradual, though appalling, agonizing process 
of the sinking of personality; until personal conscious- 
ness, perhaps all consciousness, is lost. As surely as love 
is love, it implies that the conditions of this life are the 
most favorable to man's laying hold of eternal life. And 
the incarnation of God in Christ implies that these con- 
ditions are necessary to human salvation by faith. To 
sink himself below their reach is to perish. 

The Process of Self -limitation. — This fact which 
marks selfish life is implied in conditioned personality. 
The progressive nature which divine love has afforded 
to all conditioned persons, and which by innocent self- 
determination gives rise to individual self-consciousness, 
followed by conscious enlargement of freedom while 
faithful determination continues, is reversed and undone 
by selfish determination. The process of self-limitation 
closes in upon the will like the fabled prison walls which, 
ample at first, shrank until they crushed the prisoner in 
their embrace. Step by step the conditions to self-deter- 
mination have been wasted by abuse, and now it abides 
only as a fixed, stolid sentiment of personal malevolence, 
powerless to do aught but nurse its self-consuming aver- 
sion to love. 



266 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

The sinking of personality, in a future state, is a plain 
implication of love, and is manifested in the same sink- 
ing process which is begun in this present life. It is not 
to be thought as a positive infliction, but a result which 
is implied in the nature of our personality. It is brought 
about by the person himself, by his narrowing the scope 
of his self-determining freedom — by ignoring the inde- 
pendent truth, right, and good which God represents, and 
which God is to the universe and to every individual per- 
son thereof. All determination of his life in harmony 
with these infinite motives to faith is intercepted. More- 
over, his susceptibility to them is destroyed. Selfishness, 
even in its most amiable or imposing external form, is 
nothing better than personal devotion to racial and social 
conditions, whether in their use or abuse. In their use 
it is personal devotion to no motives except those which 
are temporal. It ignores those which are eternal, and 
consequently abuses his nature by subjecting it to that 
which is beneath essential personality. Having, like 
Dives, sought his "good things" in this world, he has 
sunken his personality beneath all susceptibility to, or 
capability for, the good things of a future state. In their 
abuse he not only subjects his nature to his racial and 
social interests, but to these in the most degrading and 
brutelike form ; making the incidental pleasures the special 
objects of his pursuit. He thus not only subjects his per- 
sonal determination to racial and social enjoyment, but 
to the most limited scope of these conditions. By sub- 
jecting his mental and moral capabilities to the behests of 
appetite, passion, avarice — indeed, selfishness in any and 
all forms — he becomes their prisoner. As a man by 
physical and mental abuses limits his physical and mental 
capabilities, so by the abuse of his entire nature he 
imposes limitations upon himself which close in upon his 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 267 

will on all sides. His self-love, having become wholly 
selfishness, finds no scope for self-determination except 
in seeking pleasures incident to its means and instru- 
ments. Having rendered himself unsusceptible to any but 
selfish motives, he is incapable of determining himself 
unselfishly, even when disaster overwhelms him with 
the consciousness of disharmony with all his conditions. 
Having made himself the slave of perverted circum- 
stances, he has become wholly dependent upon them for 
satisfaction. Now that they are exhausted their absence 
leaves him a morbid embodiment of selfish desire. The 
tide of earthly circumstances over which he might have 
directed his course to a happy port, but upon which he 
chose to float idly, or to play the pirate upon the com- 
mon welfare, avoiding every port, now leaves him 
stranded on an unexplored and incongenial shore. 

Self-determined aversion to love has positive self-con- 
sciousness within him. The respects in which progres- 
sive determination has been afforded him by the gracious 
conditions of his early life were devotion to a perfect 
personal life, a perfect universe, and companionship with 
a perfect God — either implying the others. He has 
rejected them all. Now that he has established, in him- 
self, aversion to love his woe is not only the loss of pro- 
gressive personality, substituted by an established process 
of self-limitation, but the torture of existence amid the 
prevalence of a perfecting universe and a perfect God. 
The spirit of perfectness, the "Holy Spirit," present to 
his conscience — but which he had evaded, rejected, de- 
spised, hated, blasphemed, while that Spirit sought to 
woo him — is now the all-pervading atmosphere of love 
in which he writhes with agonizing aversion. 

Hozv long the process of the sinking of personality may 
continue is a question which we have no exact data from 



268 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

which to answer. The relative persistence of different 
persons in the agony of perishing by self-limitation is 
implied in the nature of personality. One's personal self- 
consciousness must be thought persistent in proportion 
as his selfish purpose is definitely determined. Hence, 
selfish personality, in its most elaborate determination, 
may be expected to cling to its purpose longest, and there- 
fore persist longest in the agony of the perishing process. 
"He shall be beaten with many stripes. " But all-con- 
ditioning love cannot be affirmed to continue the personal 
nature in conscious torture after the consciousness of self- 
determination is lost. 

Thus the ultimate extinction of the personal conscious- 
ness of the obdurate is implied in the nature of person- 
ality and the evolution of love, first, in the complete self- 
limitation and self-sinking of selfish personality by the 
uncorrected abuse of all-conditioning love; second, in 
the realization of the perfect universe, the companionship 
of the finite with the infinite, in undisturbed harmony, 
freedom, and security. In all this conflict between love 
and selfishness love has been nothing other than all- 
embracing, all-conditioning love; but when antagonized, 
outraged, blasphemed, perverted, a consuming fire. (This 
question is considered further in the chapter entitled 
"Eschatology.") 

3. The result of this process, confirming faith by 
demonstrating the progress and persistence of love, as 
perfect self-determining action, and demonstrating the 
futility and turpitude of selfishness, settles all the ques- 
tions which sin had raised and abolishes all objective 
incentives to evil. 

The self-determined wreck of evil by the. sinking of 
the personality of the impenitent will demolish all objec- 
tive motivity to selfishness. This utmost demonstration 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 269 

of selfishness, establishing a universal conviction of its 
utter worthlessness and entire turpitude, must abolish 
its power and place in the realm of motivity. It must 
fix in all minds a total aversion to selfishness. It must 
fill all with a changeless, unqualified conviction that love 
alone is perfect action, infinite in unconditioned egoism, 
eternal in exhaustless altruism. The perfect altruistic 
freedom of God realizes a perfect objective exposition in 
limitless benevolence. This is the "glory of God! 3 It 
must inspire in each finite person a pure self-love so 
firmly devoted to the realization of love's ideal of their 
personal life as to render them forever unsusceptible to 
selfishness. No motives to induce the innocent to sin can 
survive this solution. No motives but such as love dis- 
closes can arise in the universal consciousness. 

'That a progressive universe, conditioned in ignorance, 
weakness, temptation, and mercy, is the only conceivable 
ideal universe, has been sufficiently set out. That such 
progressive universe is by its nature exposed to error, 
sin, and sorrow, has been fully recognized. That error, 
sin, and sorrow must be possible to any personal universe 
which is fit to be created is an unavoidable conclusion. 
The divine choice to create is vindicated as to its holiness 
and benevolence. We have seen the glorious object, a 
holy, loving, good, free, and secure companionship of 
finite with infinite being. We have more than hinted that 
this companionship is but the foundation for wider and 
nobler realization of the possibilities of being; and that 
the eternal range of progressive development, conditioned 
in harmony, freedom, and security, will be but the per- 
petual realization of the Creator's ideal. The realization 
of this ideal vindicates the action which conditioned the 
long, weary curse of sin which obtained in preliminary 
stages — vindicates it by having afforded holy and merci- 



270 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

ful conditions upon which each person could not only 
abide in harmony with divine love, but find correction 
and recovery from evil. 

We have seen the innocence of ignorant error, the mini- 
mum of guilt and harm attending error and sin, the cor- 
rective and disciplining tendency which love imposes upon 
error and sin, conditioning all persons with hope and help. 
We have recognized, also, that to each individual all the 
suffering of corrective chastisement is over-compensated 
by the resulting recovery of purity, strength, and endless 
development of character; that the ills imposed by 
heredity and environment cannot prevent this spiritual 
exaltation, but are made to contribute to it. The out- 
raged consciousness of martyrdom, too, has its compen- 
sating triumph in the more immediate actualization of 
an ideal life. 

All this wild and awful scene of wrong and suffering 
has its compensation only in love. Love, with its power 
to inspire and glorify the conscious spirit, to realize to 
that spirit the perfection of holiness, truth, beauty, and 
good; love, with its rapture ever transcending and out- 
living its pang, enduring its torture only to burst forth 
in proportionately larger development; love, with its 
implication of immortality and ever-advancing ideals — 
is the consolation, as it is the source, of the universe. As 
love is the self-sufficient nature of the unconditioned 
reality, it is self-sufficient as the nature of a conditioned 
universe. Love, and immortality for love's sake, are the 
surviving, all-compensating factors which can weave 
every error, sorrow, and repentance into the will's 
"armour of light," the knightly long-sufferer's cloth of 
gold. 

Then let it be clearly recognized that however great 
may have been the sum of error, sin, and sorrow in the 



THE SOLUTION OF EVIL 271 

universe, it is the least that could be secured by the Crea- 
tor, in proportion to the highest good of dependent per- 
sons ; and that the greatness of its volume is due to these 
persons themselves who alone could have made it less. 
Let it be remembered, also, that, wherein it could not be 
prevented by divine love, it is held within conditions 
which provide for either its merciful remedy or its self- 
extinction. Nothing but an unreasoning, perverse devo- 
tion to sin can prevent its corrective chastening in any 
individual soul. 

Thus it appears that the Creator, in choosing to create 
finite beings, but indulges love's eternal altruistic spirit, 
and gives it the most beneficent, because perfect, deter- 
mination. He develops the ever-increasing good of his 
altruistic life as he ever realizes the infinite good of his 
unconditioned egoistic life. The evolution of love, ad- 
vancing in its eternal process of altruistic determination, 
maintains the original unity of holiness and benevolence, 
and assures the ultimate oneness of the actual and the 
ideal universe. 



CHAPTER IV 
The Atoning Fact 

The ideal, to this summit God descends, man rises. — Victor Hugo. 

Perfect action, which constitutes perfect being — the 
unconditioned, or infinite, person — we have found to be 
the original unit. The nature of that perfect action we 
have found to be an unconditioned, infinitely free life, 
devoted to the realization of absolute perfection; and 
that this self-enacted and perfectly adjusted nature is 
love. In a word, we have seen that perfect action is love ; 
and that love is an order of self-determining action in 
which is realized infinite self-consciousness, or uncon- 
ditioned egoism. Moreover, this perfect, love-achieved 
egoism affords conditions to- perfect altruism without 
being conditioned by it, and thus the existence of persons, 
or a universe of persons, other than the Infinite Person, 
is possible and probable to our thought, as also certain 
to' our experience. 

In the determination, or carrying out, of perfect altru- 
ism we have seen the rise of relative consciousness in 
the Deity — the divine sonship — and also the putting forth 
of objective action by the divine Son in the creation of 
an objective universe of dependent persons. 

We have also seen, in a former chapter, the genesis of 
evil, and the necessity of merciful benevolence as a con- 
dition to the existence of a perfect personal universe, and 
its solution of "the problem of evil." It has appeared, 
too, that this solution, whether in individual character or 
collective forms of life, is one in which through a long 
series of ages sin demonstrates its total lack of merit and 
its infinite demerit; and love proves its limitless altruis- 
272 



THE ATONING FACT 273 

tic capability, sustaining the utmost test imposed by sin- 
ful freedom ; outliving the full determination of sin, and 
affording the conditions to the development of a universe 
regenerated, purified, harmonious, and secure in the 
utmost freedom possible to dependent persons — thus real- 
izing the eternal companionship of infinite and finite 
being. In a word : Love is able, unimpaired, to success- 
fully maintain the conditions of a universe of perfect 
finite persons. 

We have seen, further, that through all this evolution 
of love its immaculate ideal abides uncompromised, its 
devotion to that ideal unwavering, its eternal altruistic 
spirit unabated, holy, and benevolent. 

But hitherto we have said nothing of the subjective 
strain, so to speak, which is experienced by a love which, 
though holy because of its devotion to the perfect, pours 
out unfailing mercy to an unholy race, affords conditions 
for measureless sin and sorrow, gives scope for the self- 
demonstration of sinful freedom, endures incalculable 
abuse ; yet is unimpaired in either holiness or benevolence. 
In this "strain" upon the evolution of love must be found, 
if found at all, the atoning fact. 

All theories of atonement which involve a "legal fic- 
tion," a "penal substitution," or a "commercial transac- 
tion" are crude and unsatisfactory because an atoning 
fact nowhere clearly appears in them. All theories of 
atonement by martyrdom or "moral influence" are super- 
ficial, and evaporate when analyzed — evaporate because 
they contain no atoning fact. To affirm an atonement 
is to claim that there exists the force of atoning fact in 
the relations of the Creator to the universe ; and to teach 
a philosophy of atonement is warranted only by such fact 
having been clearly discriminated as implied, disclosed, 
or both, by love. Hence, a treatment of the subject should 



274 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

develop, first, an atoning fact ; and, secondly, its relation 
to man as implied in divine love. 

The simplest definition of atonement is "a bringing 
together," but as habitually associated with religious 
sacrifice it includes, also, the idea of suffering on the part 
of the one by whom this "bringing together," or recon- 
ciliation, is accomplished. In addition to these contents 
of the term the fact or idea of vicarious sacrifice on the 
part of the atoning one is insisted upon by some and 
rejected by others, as essential to complete the notion of 
atonement for sin. 

The incompatibility between the fact of a holy God 
and the fact of his upholding a world, rendered unholy 
by sinners, in merciful conditions turns all thoughtfully 
religious minds toward a reconciliation either maintained 
or at some time achieved in his action toward them. 
But how maintained, or at what point achieved, and at 
what cost are questions upon which there has been much 
disagreement. Lack of clear discrimination in phi- 
losophy must result in great discrepancy and lack of 
clearness in the interpretation of data, whether these data 
be natural or revealed. To pursue the line of love's evo- 
lution seems to the writer the only safe method by which 
to ascertain what of atonement it implies — whether atone- 
ment is a fact, and, if so, what is the form of that fact. 
Having found such fact, it may then appear whether 
it has been originally maintained or supplementarily 
achieved; whether it involves reconciliation and suffer- 
ing: and whether that suffering is sacrificial and vicari- 
ous. Hence, reconciliation, suffering, sacrifice, vicarious- 
ness, each or all may be recognized as contents of the 
question. Do any or all of them exist in fact, or are they 
mere figures of speech ; and if all really exist, do they fill 
out the notion of atonement for sin? A true answer to 



THE ATONING FACT 275 

these questions must decide as to the fact and philosophy 
of atonement. 

The notion of atonement must imply — 

1. That there is an absolute authority, a sacred, change- 
less imperative in something. 

2. That this imperative is propitiated, satisfied, by 
somewhat. 

It may imply — 

3. That suffering, agony, is incident to this propitia- 
tion. 

4. That this suffering may be undeserved by the suf- 
ferer, and is, therefore, a sacrifice. 

5. It may be, in some sense, a displacement of suffer- 
ing in others, whose suffering should result from the 
same cause, and therefore, this displacement is vicarious. 

Some of these contents are recognized in some form in 
every theory of atonement, but may have been erroneously 
distributed, or cumbered with crudities imposed by inade- 
quate systems. Two things, at least, ought to appear 
here, namely: Whether in the evolution of love there 
exist facts which are essentially atoning in their charac- 
ter, and what is their true relation in their evolution ? 

As we set about this inquiry let us reiterate with 
emphasis the definition that "Love is action which is con- 
scious of an ideal, to the realization of which it is de- 
voted" It is devotion to perfectness. It is the only kind 
of action, of which we can conceive, which is capable of 
realizing unconditioned perfection; the only conceivable 
nature of perfect being. In the infinite ego it is uncon- 
ditioned intention ever realizing absolute perfection. And 
in finite beings it is supreme, conditioned intention, the 
only kind of action known to us by which we can deter- 
mine conditioned perfection. 

In its unconditioned action it can experience no 



276 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

obstruction, friction, or delay, but constantly actualizes 
infinite perfection; but when we think of its evolution 
in an objective universe we must think of it as conditioned 
devotement — it achieves its ends by the use of means. It 
is devotement to the realization of a finite ideal which, 
when achieved, will be a perfect, though dependent, uni- 
verse. In seeking to actualize such ideal universe divine 
love is related to that ideal as subject to object; hence, 
its action is conditioned by that object, and by the means 
and supplementary agencies by which that object is 
attained. The manner and extent of its action are mainly 
decided by the type, or kind, of universe it seeks. This 
type is that ideal which it strives to actualize. 

Since love is devotion to the perfect, it is a perfect uni- 
verse, only, which its evolution can have in view. This 
action, though conditioned, is perfect within its con- 
ditions. God's action, which is characterized as the going 
forth of love only by virtue of its devotion to perfection, 
cannot be thought self-conscious love if it seek less than 
the ideal, the perfect. Not only does love realize the 
absolute, or infinite, ideal in the Independent Being, and 
the relative ideal in the "Eternal Son" — Creator — but, 
having chosen to create a universe, love must be thought 
as devoted to the realization of an ideal object, the ideal 
universe. 

Moreover, an ideal universe when actually realized will 
be a perfect universe. A perfect universe must realize 
the highest conditioned good; and divine love acting 
objectively, hence within limiting conditions, cannot be 
thought as implying less than this highest conditioned 
good. 

The essential conditions upon which love can realize 
a universe are clearly of two classes : 

I. The ideal sought to be realised. 



THE ATONING FACT 277 

II. The action zvhich achieves this realization. 

I. In the ideal sought to be realized we find this 
sacred authority which decides what manner of universe 
must be evolved. This sacred authority of the ideal is 
the first datum in atonement. A former chapter treats 
at some length of the authority of the ideal, and hence 
it is needful to remember here only that the sacred, or 
the holy, is the quality of intentional perfection; that, 
whether it be the actual perfection which God intention- 
ally realizes in himself or the ideal perfection which is 
intended to be realized in the universe, it is still the in- 
tending, or purposing, perfection that is holy. 

Further, the ideal could have no authority, no moral 
imperative, if its actualization were impossible. But since 
love does actualize the infinite ideal in the Infinite Being 
its ideal is absolutely authoritative in all being. We may 
think of the ideal as already actualized, practical perfec- 
tion, or as actualizable ideal perfection. In either case 
its authority is absolute ; it is the holy, or moral, impera- 
tive. It is because love only is perfect action and inten- 
tionally realizes the perfect, conditioned or unconditioned, 
that its ideal is holy and authoritative. All other action 
is subject to love's moral authority, and its fitness or 
unfitness must be adjudged by the criterion of love's per- 
fection. This, for the reason that love is the only action 
which can and does achieve actual perfection of being. 
It is plain, then, that the ideal is a changeless condition 
in the evolution of love. It is the sacred, uncompromis- 
able imperative. 

II. The Action zvhich "Achieves this Realization. — 
Action which satisfies the requirements of its ideal is 
propitiation ; action whch propitiates the perfect in behalf 
of the imperfect. Now, since God has chosen an evolu- 
tion of love, that evolution must satisfy love's holy 



278 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

imperative by actualizing love's ideal — realizing perfec- 
tion both in individual finite persons and in the universe. 
This is the same as to say that love is devotion to the 
perfect in the process of evolution as well as in the per- 
fect nature of God. Then, if love's evolutionary action 
is devoted to the realizing of ideal finite personality and 
thereby an ideal universe, that devotement propitiates the 
ideal. Though this action may be conditioned, modified, 
limited, abused, perverted by finite persons, yet if it main- 
tains conditions upon which the perfect finite person and 
universe may be achieved it thereby propitiates the holy 
imperative of its ideal. The sacred ideal which is actu- 
ally explicit in divine love is the imperative fact : Devo- 
tion to that ideal is the propitiating fact in love's 
evolution of the universe. The action which affords the 
conditions for the perfection of finite being, though once 
sinful, is the propitiating, satisfying, atoning fact; atone- 
ment for sinners. 

Again, let it be kept in mind that an ideal universe, 
when practically realized, must afford the highest con- 
ditioned good ; and, hence, it is the realization of perfect 
benevolence. Thus love, which realizes absolute holiness 
and infinite good in the divine egoism, is not only per- 
fectly holy, but also perfectly benevolent. Love's ideal, 
the changeless imperative, is holy and benevolent in all 
personal determination. And love's devotement, which 
seeks to realize the ideal in a universe, is not only holy, 
but benevolent to the highest degree of conditioned per- 
fection. Hence its devotement is the satisfaction which 
the ideal requires. To thus devote its action to the main- 
tenance of the conditions upon which all finite persons 
may realize ideal finite personality is to propitiate the 
absolute authority of the ideal in behalf of those persons. 

If God were simply and singly altruistic, wholly de- 



THE ATONING FACT 279 

voted to conferring advantages upon others, regardless 
of the use or abuse to which those others might appro- 
priate such advantages, he would thus ignore the ideal 
and become a willing party to such abuse ; a willing party 
to selfishness in others. He would have no personal, 
subjective interest in thus giving out, save the gratifica- 
tion of his power to give ; which, in such case, would be 
a selfish and wicked satisfaction. His giving would lose 
the quality of benevolence, as well as that of holiness; 
and would, therefore, cease to be love. It would be a 
vain prodigality of resources fraught with degrading 
tendency to its recipients, and, hence, a connivance at 
their degradation. It could realize no higher self-deter- 
mination than a vainglorious exhibition of power. 

Further, in the event any one of its recipients should 
regret his own degrading abuses and wish for something 
better he could find no sympathy nor incitement in God's 
action to help him back to moral purity ; it could not con- 
dition moral recovery. Hence love, regarded as simple, 
unqualified altruism, omnipotent almsgiving, would be 
unable to achieve a perfect personal universe. Altruism 
without intention to promote excellence in its recipients 
is simply universal selfishness; and must drag Creator 
and creature down to common selfishness and discord. 

Yet all the imperfection which infidels think they see 
in the world, and all the complaints of pessimists, arise 
from this absurd view of divine love. 

But love, in its devotion to the practical realization of 
an ideal universe, is thereby essentially holy, because per- 
fect in its intention; and, hence, this very holiness gives 
assurance of beneficent altruism. But if love had no 
method of bestowing but to create beings with the largest 
capacity to receive, and to pour upon them the largest 
gifts, it is impossible to see how it could achieve a uni- 



2 8o IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

verse of higher motives than hope and fear. Hope and 
fear, as supreme motives, would be the inspiration of self- 
ishness in dependent beings, and the exponent of selfish- 
ness in the independent ; and so love would vanish. 

When, then, on this sin-cursed planet, we say, by 
authority of either reason or revelation, that "God is 
love," that affirmation implies that the constant intent 
of his action is to achieve perfection — that is to say, he 
is holy; and also that this perfection is achieved through 
beneficent altruism, and for a beneficent end — he is benev- 
olent. Action fails to be, or express, love when either of 
these qualities is absent. It has abandoned the ideal, 
their ground and guaranty. 

Action which satisfies the requirements of its ideal is 
propitiation. Its propitiatory character may be incon- 
spicuous amid the harmonies of uncrossed love, or within 
self-imposed conditions. But when love is crossed, the 
realization of its ideal obstructed and baffled by complex 
conditions imposed by other and antagonizing forces, its 
purity traduced, its benevolence made the opportunity of 
selfishness, its conditioning action made to serve organ- 
ized evil ; and, above all, when it graciously seeks to con- 
ciliate and bless its self-debased foes, restoring them to 
the harmonies and realization of perfect being — it is 
then it demonstrates its propitiatory character by per- 
sistent devotion to its ideal, notwithstanding these 
obstructions. 

The periodic overflow of the Nile has been for centuries 
the most marked condition to life and wealth for the 
swarming people of Lower Egypt. But this overflow has 
ever been supplied by the action of mysterious and long- 
hidden sources which satisfy an imperative measure of 
repletion in the solitudes of central Africa. Vainly did 
the idolatrous people seek to propitiate that "imperative 



THE ATONING FACT 2S1 

measure" with prayers to the mighty river when its hid- 
den sources withheld their wonted action. Only these 
sources which by their action swelled the bosoms of 
Africa's silent lakes could propitiate that imperative con- 
dition. In the placid bosom of the lake is the heart-beat 
of the Nile. Is it less potent than where its pulsations 
burst its throbbing arteries in Lower Egypt? This 
mighty action which for hundreds of miles pours and 
storms with deliverance and wealth upon the famished 
lands is but the demonstration, amid obstacles and spe- 
cific applications, of the peaceful but powerful action of 
those long-undiscovered lakes. 

The wealth of the Nile may be made to serve oppres- 
sion and degradation, yet its tides roll on, and will con- 
tinue until the neglect and abuse of the blessings which 
it affords shall cease. Its beneficiaries will ultimately, 
through unselfish intelligence, recognize and honor the 
persistent propitiation which in distant solitudes affords 
these conditions of their well-being. 

But this second class of conditions demands a more 
explicit consideration. These are those which are 
evolved by love, seeking to achieve the highest con- 
ditioned good in a perfect universe. Since one person 
cannot determine the character of another, but can only 
determine conditions upon which another may or must 
determine his own character, divine love's propitiation 
of the ideal for dependent persons can only consist in 
affording the conditions upon which they may realize 
their perfect being. Unlike the first condition, the ideal, 
which is a changeless imperative, this second class in- 
cludes changing conditions which arise in the actions 
and relations through which the perfect universe is 
evolved. Since the evolution of love can be thought as 
striving only toward that which satisfies its ideal, its 



282 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

action must be thought as providing only those conditions 
upon which free finite persons may actualize a perfect 
finite existence. Hence the questions : 

What is a perfect Unite personality and universe? 
And what are the conditions requisite to a perfect Unite 
personality and perfect universe? 

The first of these questions has been answered, in a 
former chapter, substantially thus: A perfect finite per- 
sonality is a free and undisturbed progressive companion- 
ship of finite person with the Infinite Person ; or progres- 
sive interaction of dependent with independent being. 
Analyzed, it is dependent persons who, within their con- 
ditions, have ( i ) the largest freedom to determine them- 
selves; (2) perfect harmony with God; and (3) perfect 
security in this self-determined harmony. 

1. As to freedom, it is scarcely necessary to say again 
that a universe can be known only as one of beings who 
are consciously other than the Creator; self-determining 
and therefore persons. But a perfect universe must be 
composed of persons whose power to determine them- 
selves is the greatest possible to dependent beings, the 
largest freedom possible to dependent existence. Such 
freedom must be thought essential to the highest realiza- 
tion of finite personality, the highest conditioned good, 
the highest capability for their development of love in 
companionship with the Infinite. 

2. Love implies universal harmony, the harmony of 
the dependent person with the conditions of his being 
which are posited by the Independent Person ; and, as a 
consequence, the harmony of dependent persons with 
each other. This consequence follows from their com- 
mon harmonization with the conditions of their being 
which are provided by divine love. Love is the basis of 
universal adjustment. Such perfect harmony is the first 



THE ATONING FACT 283 

and fullest reciprocation of love which is possible between 
all finite persons, and between them and God. It assures 
the right of a common devotion to ideal selfhood in each 
individual and to the realization of the ideal universe. 
Pure self-love implies the highest perfection of each in 
harmony with that of all; while selfishness, the right of 
none and the enemy of all, implies the degradation and 
ultimate destruction of all by universal disharmony. Uni- 
versal harmony in reciprocation of divine love is essen- 
tially implied in a perfect universe. 

3. Again, perfect finite personality, or a perfect uni- 
verse, must be perfectly secure against disharmony, not- 
withstanding its widest freedom. A universe which is 
liable to discord and defection cannot be deemed perfect, 
does not realize perfect dependent being to its members, 
nor his ideal to its Creator. Nor can it assure undis- 
turbed progress, but must embarrass the achieving of 
the highest conditioned good. The danger of discord 
which is incident to the freedom of dependent persons 
must be averted without impairing that freedom. 

This security cannot be thought attainable by any neces- 
sitating measures; it must be achieved consistently with 
the largest freedom possible to dependent beings. But 
it must attain an improbability of defection so great as 
to be practically equivalent to an impossibility. This 
security, though not in the least degree the result of force 
or fate, must be practically equal to fate. Such is the 
moral assurance of harmony implied in the thought of 
perfect finite personality. 

Motivity, not coercion, is the only means by which this 
security is attained. Susceptibility to motives of love, 
and positive aversion to motives of selfishness in any 
form, must be the elements of this security. These are 
the lines of eternal fortification against discord, the terms 



284 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

of eternal reassurance to companionship between finite 
beings and the infinite. Since men are free in the sphere 
of conditioned self-determination, divine love can secure 
their reciprocation only by incitement, or, as we have 
termed it, motivity. By motivity we understand outer 
influence and inner susceptibility, each affecting the other ; 
and both, as so affected, constituting motivity. Only by 
motives, and susceptibility or aversion thereto, can per- 
sons be influenced in the respects in which they are free. 
Only by means of these can their persistence in any given 
course be perpetually assured. We are perfectly sure that 
men will never feed upon stones, for the reason that they 
have no appetence, susceptibility, for stones ; and that God 
will never be tempted to evil, since he is unsusceptible to 
such temptation. So, also, a universe of finite persons 
conditioned by permanent motivity to love and aversion 
to selfishness will abide in love's holy embrace evermore. 
In the realm of motivity, then, the holiness and goodness 
of free being is to be achieved and secured in whatever 
degree such achievement is possible. 

If the natures of finite persons, which constitute one 
class of their conditions, were so fixed and unalterable 
as not to be susceptible to modification by their use or 
abuse of that nature, their harmony with the Creator's 
action might have been secured by the Creator's deter- 
mination, just as their physical susceptibility assures that 
they will never attempt to feed upon stones. But in such 
a case their freedom, would be nothing more than animal 
necessity, incapable of self-determined character. Hence, 
they would not be persons; hence, not able to realize an 
ideal personality. 

Or if, having all the elements of personality, all persons 
were environed with external conditions which so fully 
manifest the truth, glory, and power of God as to preclude 



THE ATONING FACT 285 

the possibility of error — such, for example, as infants 
and idiots who pass from this life without probationary 
development are thought to enter upon — they might be 
thought to be practically secure. They might develop a 
love of God and a harmonization with their environment 
truly delightful; but they could never be conscious of 
unsusceptibility to selfishness, never conscious of a self- 
determined character secure in the exercise of the largest 
freedom of dependent personality; hence, could never 
realize a perfect finite personality nor a perfect universe. 

Since, then, finite persons are free in their determina- 
tion of what they shall be as to the use of their suscepti- 
bilities, and of what they will do as to their environment, 
it follows that their motivity is largely self-determined. 
That is to say, divine love cannot determine, but can 
only condition, that motivity which shall secure them in 
perfect harmony. Creating them persons self-determin- 
ing — was to make them liable to disharmony. That lia- 
bility is implicit in self-determination. But that self- 
determination is so conditioned that it is able to eliminate 
the liability to disharmony by determining in itself a sus- 
ceptibility to love, and aversion to selfishness which can 
never be disturbed. 

To afford the conditions upon which all dependent per- 
sons may determine their own perfection is, it is clear, 
the work of divine love. This work is love's devotement 
to the realization of the perfect finite person and the per- 
fect universe — the atoning fact. If love's interaction with 
each dependent person is such as to favorably condition 
motivity to love; if to the erring and sinning, who have 
not yet chosen fixed antagonism to it, love evolves con- 
ditions to recovery from evil ; and if upon these conditions 
dependent persons shall attain fixed motivity to good 
and aversion to evil, then does love successfully propitiate 



286 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

the ideal in its evolution. This is actual atonement for 
sin. 

But since harmony, freedom, and security are essential 
to perfection in a universe, it is evident that in evolving 
such universe the Creator goes to the greatest length in 
hemming himself about with conditions and obligations. 
In conditioning the finite perfection of dependent per- 
sons he enables them, to condition his own action to the 
extent that, whatever they may determine in the use of 
themselves, he must maintain their existence and respect 
their freedom in working out such results as they deter- 
mine in interaction with his activities in and around them. 
This is implied in the development of perfect finite free- 
dom, This alone can afford the conditions upon which 
they may either rise to secure companionship with God or 
sink to self-determined destruction. 

But we can easily see that the moral freedom of depend- 
ent persons which shall thus appropriate the benevolence 
of love may abuse, misappropriate, and pervert that 
benevolence, and thereby introduce disharmony and even 
disaster. By creating free persons the Creator has put 
it out of his own hands to prevent the rise of evil. One 
person can only condition another; that other, alone, 
can determine himself upon such conditions. The self- 
determining power of persons is power for evil as well 
as for good. They are able to pervert their nature and 
environment, and that is to pervert the action of their 
Creator, and thus make him the servitor of their iniquities. 
They are able to organize his activities which constitute 
their natural environment into vast sources and systems 
of sin and suffering — able to turn his benefits into inflic- 
tions of wrong upon each other. Moreover, as seen in 
former chapters, he must permit this abuse to run its 
course, or else he must shrink from the attempt to realize 



THE ATONING FACT 287 

his altruistic determination — must forego the bestowal of 
infinite benevolence — abandon the evolution of love. 
Thus the determination of perfect benevolence furnishes 
the conditions upon which finite self-determination can 
baffle benevolence, and set at naught holiness in the world. 
Unlike God's personal perfection, which is independently 
self-determined, the perfection of the universe must be 
determined eventually by all the persons who make up that 
universe. And this must be done upon the conditions 
which love evolves, however modified by the use or abuse 
which may be imposed thereon by the actions of finite 
persons. 

These conditions being holy and benevolent in aim and 
tendency, love's evolution, to be unimpeached and untar- 
nished, must be successful, however much of evil may 
arise in the process of realizing a perfect universe. Action 
which takes chances of disaster must, to be holy and 
beneficent, provide for either the prevention or remedy 
of such disaster. If it fail in this it is responsible for 
the disaster, and hence blameworthy ; no matter how pure 
and benevolent the impulse which prompted the action. 
Hence, it is true that only love appears as the nature of 
action which can account for the existence of a personal 
universe. For love only can successfully evolve the con- 
ditions to perfect finite personality. Though it condition 
the possibility of evil it also* conditions the remedy of evil ; 
and this, too, without injustice to any being. 

Since the self-determination of finite persons cannot 
be violated, but is in their own hands, yet the conditions 
to their self-perfecting must be afforded by the action 
which evolves their being, the following statement is 
clear: Love's devotion to ideal Unite being, individual 
and universal, propitiates the ideal by affording the con- 
ditions upon which dependent persons may achieve 



288 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

perfect Unite personality and determine a perfect uni- 
verse. 

That justice cannot, but grace alone can, condition the 
development of a perfect universe has been shown in a 
former chapter. Enacting the perfect in the evolution of 
a universe love can contemplate nothing less than persons 
who may attain to the highest self-determination possible 
to dependent being ; that they shall achieve this in accord 
with the universal right of self-love, and thereby realize 
universal harmony; and that they shall be able to attain 
security from all liability to discord or defection. More- 
over, the practical realization of this ideal is the highest 
conditionable good; to bestow which is the benevolent 
purpose of love's evolution. All this is to say that the 
gracious evolution of love — an evolution beyond the lim- 
its of justice — conditions not only the rise, but the rem- 
edy, of evil. It thus conditions the realization of the per- 
fect universe, and, hence, propitiates the imperative ideal. 

The question, How does grace accomplish this? has 
been answered in outlining the problem of evil — sub- 
stantially thus : The ideal finite person must be a progres- 
sive person; the progressive person must begin as an 
ignorant and feeble person; an ignorant and feeble per- 
son must be conditioned in grace ; and gracious conditions 
are evolved by divine love's devotion to the realization of 
a perfect personal universe. 

Dependent persons may thus settle for themselves and 
for all intelligent observers and associates the questions, 
doubts, and pretensions which ignorance or selfishness 
may have originated. They may settle them by demon- 
stration of their deceptive and despicable nature; and 
may acquire an aversion and hatred toward selfishness 
that will render them forever unsusceptible to its tempta- 
tions. On the other hand, by experience of love's 



THE ATONING FACT 289 

purifying, exalting, remedial grace they will apprehend 
it as the nature of perfect being, limitless in resource ; and 
will acquire an ever-deepening susceptibility to infinite 
motives, the charm of the perfect. Thus they may demon- 
strate that love, perfectly holy and benevolent, is the 
nature of perfect self-determination; that in actualizing 
its ideals they have the open sesame to the highest deter- 
mination of finite freedom and excellence; and that a 
holy God and a holy universe are the infinitely and only 
worthy modes of being. If love, subjected as it must be 
to the abuses, perversions, and conditions which finite 
freedom and evil can impose, shall nevertheless achieve 
successful conditions to universal susceptibility and devo- 
tion to the ideal, and aversion to selfishness and selfish 
motives, it will thereby realize a perfect universe — a uni- 
verse of persons in harmonious articulation with the 
divine activities. And if, in the meantime, it shall have 
maintained the conditions of such motivity to all persons 
it will have propitiated the holy imperative of the ideal. 

Action which should create a person or a universe of 
persons in the highest form of finite powers, not being abh 
to remedy sin except by exercise of justice in the inflic- 
tion of punishment, cannot render evil self-corrective, 
cannot inspire devotion to ideal personality; hence, can- 
not propitiate the authority of the perfect; and, hence, 
cannot make an atonement upon which sin could be for- 
given or the sinner recovered to loving harmony with 
God. But the evolution of love, in a universe of progres- 
sive persons, because it maintains in each person the 
authority of the ideal, and affords him merciful conditions 
upon which to actualize an ideal self, can achieve ulti- 
mately perfect finite personality and a perfect universe. 
And because it can and does do this love's devotement to 
the ideal atones for all the evil which is incident to a 



2 9 o IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

progressively self-determining universe. It atones to the 
ideal by maintaining the authority of that ideal, and by 
successfully conditioning its realization. It conditions 
the realization of its ideal, not by repressing, but by 
remedying, evil. It achieves security in the harmony of 
perfect finite freedom, not by eliminating freedom, but by 
conditioning the self-elimination of all susceptibility to 
the abuse of freedom, 'and by inciting universal devotion 
to the perfect. In a word, it discloses the nature of per- 
fection and conditions a universal motivity to enact the 
perfect in respect of what persons should be and do. 

The evolution of love, advancing in its eternal process 
of altruistic determination, maintains the original unity 
of holiness and benevolence, and assures the ultimate one- 
ness of the ideal and actual universe. The holy, which 
is the quality of intentional perfection; and the good, 
which is the practical satisfaction of perfection; and 
benevolence, the bestowing of good, are perpetually at 
one. Neither moral impurity nor failure in benevolence 
appears in this process, although dependent persons may 
fill its bosom with unspeakable selfishness and wrong. 
No reconciliation is needed in love's action other than 
that which exists unbroken in the original and indivisible 
unity of the holy and the benevolent. This inviolable 
unity reconciles, in love, the amplest determination of 
benevolence with ideal holiness. Love is the unit which 
holds in reconciliation the factors of its evolution, the 
holy imperative of the ideal, and the limitless benevolence 
which affords the conditions for the realization of this 
ideal. The realization will be the universal oneness of 
the actual and the ideal. Love's devotement to the ideal, 
the atoning fact, is the power and pledge of that oneness. 
The implicit oneness of holiness and merciful benevo- 
lence in love becomes explicit in the ultimate oneness 



THE ATONING FACT 291 

of the actual and the ideal in the perfection of the 
universe. 

Thus God's devotement to the perfect is the satisfying 
fact in the placid harmonies of the infinite consciousness, 
the propitiating fact in his relative consciousness amid 
the disharmonies of his abused and perverted mercies, 
the atoning fact in conditioning the recovery and security 
of the harmonies of a perfect universe. This most majes- 
tic fact upon which the eye of reason is permitted to 
gaze, love's devotement to its ideal, is the atoning fact. 
It realizes full determination only in action which is per- 
fect — perfect in purpose, and unlimited in the benevolence 
which compasses that purpose — like a mighty river whose 
onward action, hedged, dammed-up, turned awry, con- 
ditioned, obstructed by abuse and perversion, rises, 
widens, and bears the universe on to a shoreless, fathom- 
less perfection. 

The Agony of Love. — This is that consciousness of 
infinite offense and infinite solicitude which is implied in 
conditioned effort to realize the ideal. Unconditioned 
action realizes perfection in itself; hence, in his uncon- 
ditioned self-determination God cannot be thought con- 
scious of solicitude or obstruction in realizing absolute 
perfection. But as the "Eternal Son," the relative con- 
sciousness in Deity, he must be thought conscious of 
offense and solicitude in his objective effort to evolve a 
perfect universe, conditioned and obstructed as his effort 
is by the perverse freedom of the persons who compose 
that universe. Hence, this offense and this solicitude 
must be recognized as among the implications of divine 
love in its evolution. 

This solicitude thus offended is subject to be deepened 
into indefinite degrees of intensity by the perverse deter- 
minations of dependent persons whose perfecting is the 



2 9 2 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

'object of love's devotion. The Creator's activities, put 
forth to condition the development of dependent persons, 
may be so baffled and perverted as to defer for indefinite 
ages the object of his devotement. The degradation and 
sorrow also of his children which must result from this 
disharmony must vastly enhance the anguish of love's 
devotion to their highest good. Hence, love, in this evo- 
lution, must experience that which in human experience 
and human language is agony. Though we may not 
affirm that God suffers actual pain, we must recognize 
divine love as being in that attitude which to human love 
is the very rack of anguish. And if in any event this divine 
consciousness comes to be expressed through the medium 
of human nature it must be an agonizing revelation. 

The sense of infinite offense and solicitude must be 
borne until the actual universe shall realize its ideal; 
until love's devotion to the ideal is crowned with uni- 
versal success. Until then the activities of divine love 
are subject to abuse and perversion, which baffle and 
retard the practical realization of the end to which it is 
devoted. This devotement is subject — 

i. To possibility of the rise of error, selfishness, and 
suffering in the world. 

2. To the actual existence and world-wide prevalence 
of sin and suffering. 

3. Moreover, these activities of divine love are sub- 
ject to their being made to cooperate with sin and sor- 
row, and afford scope and power for their domination. 

4. Selfishness arises in rivalry with love and usurps 
its throne in the human heart. 

5.. The good of being is for ages abridged, well-nig^ri 
displaced by actual evil; and, 

6. There is ultimately a final rejection of love's effort 
in the incorrigible, which love can remedy only by con- 



THE ATONING FACT 293 

ditioning the self-defeat, perhaps self-extinction, of the 
conscious sinner. 

All these facts and considerations, while they do not 
tarnish the divine purity or exhaust love's benevolence, 
constitute subjection to offense and solicitude, and, hence, 
agony to love. Although love so conditions these abuses 
and perversions with corrective, remedial, and exalting 
tendencies, yet they condition love, ( 1 ) offend its purity 
and (2) obstruct its benevolence; hence, they must be 
thought as of unspeakable offense and agony to love. 
Although the Creator might, in the exercise of arbitrary 
justice, destroy each sinner, and thus forego the develop- 
ment of finite character to a higher type than force or 
fear could incite, although God might have chosen to 
dwell in unalloyed bliss, infinite rapture, without creat- 
ing a universe, yet this conclusion abides unmoved : His 
nature, love, conscious of the beneficence of love-deter- 
mined being, conscious of love's infinite resource, con- 
scious that love requires a universe of persons to actualize 
its ideal objective life, has created a world of free persons 
who can know and feel and reciprocate his love; hence, 
able to reject, revile, and abuse that love. Love can 
manage these only by surrounding them with conditions 
of mercy. This management is, therefore, subject to 
ages of the continuance of evil, and this continuance 
imposes ages of antagonism, offense, and practical sub- 
jection which condition and, therefore, agonize love. 
Hence, it is evident that love's choice to create a universe 
of persons is the choice to accept the vast cycle of agony 
which it must undergo on account of error, sin, and sor- 
row which it must permit; all for the sake of lavishing 
endless beneficence upon finite persons. 

Perhaps sin and sorrow could have been avoided by 
creating a universe of a low order — and thus love's 



294 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

agony avoided ; but such could not be love's universe. It 
might have served to display divine power and maintain 
divine supremacy undisputed, but it could never achieve 
divine companionship, never be worthy of divine love. 
Could love in any way dissolve the original unity of holi- 
ness and benevolence and still maintain its own exist- 
ence as devotement to the perfect, it might avoid its 
agony. But since it is what it is, it must agonize until 
devotement to the perfect is assured throughout the per- 
sonal universe. Devotement to the ideal, which is the 
bond of reconciliation throughout the entire evolution of 
love, the bond which holds an ignorant, sinful, and suffer- 
ing world in the arms of a holy benevolence until it shall 
develop its own security in holy freedom — this all-recon- 
ciling devotement is the agonizing factor in love. 

If in the exercise of their self-determination God's 
children abuse his beneficence by making it an occasion 
for selfish satisfaction in sin of every kind, it would 
cause no regret in him if his love were without devotion 
to the perfect, without the quality of holiness. But 
because love is devotion to the perfect, and, therefore, 
has the quality of holiness, such abuse of his beneficence 
results in agony to love. Hence, in order to carry out 
the greatest benevolence, perfect altruism in ideal finite 
being, by abiding holy it must continue to agonize. This 
is the agony of devotement. This is the sphere in which 
the intense strain betwen the ideal and the actual appears. 

Devotement to the ideal, the perfect, is unswervingly 
true. That ideal demands ever-enlarging benevolence 
toward the erring and the selfish in order to its realiza- 
tion, by their correction, redemption, and perfecting. This 
larger benevolence is, in turn, appropriated by sinners as 
opportunity for further, wider, vaster evil. The dis- 
crepancy betwen the actual and the ideal world becomes 



THE ATONING FACT 295 

a breach, the breach becomes a chasm, the chasm an 
antagonism. The actual world is at war with love's ideal 
and with the forces which condition the world's existence 
and perfecting. Yet love's devotement must enlarge its 
benevolence to circumvent that antagonism ; must multi- 
ply benefits to its enemies, give them standing room, 
fighting room, supply them with the instruments of their 
warfare, replenish their commissariat, and still offer them 
amnesty, pardon, fellowship, eternal companionship. All 
this ever-widening benevolence it gives that they may 
perceive its excellence, may find incitement and oppor- 
tunity to recover from selfishness, and that sin may defeat 
itself, either in the sinner's self-loathing and renunciation 
of sin or by means of his incorrigible self-degradation 
and perhaps entire loss of moral freedom and personality. 
Thus — through ages upon ages, baffled, abused, per- 
verted, apparently defeated, its activities turned against 
itself, helplessly supporting sin by lovingly maintaining 
the existence of sinners, meeting greater emergencies 
with greater mercies, yet unswerving in devotion to the 
ideal, hence atoning to the ideal — love's atonement is an 
atonement of agony. 

This is not the agony of correction; for that would 
imply fault and dependence in divine love. It is not the 
agony of penalty ; for that would imply its moral degra- 
dation. It is not the agony of defeat ; for that would be 
its surrender. It is an agony which persists because 
the quality and efficiency of the agonist are self-main- 
tained, unimpaired. Because its quality and efficiency 
can and do abide in unwavering devotion to the ideal, 
throughout the process of evolving a perfect universe, it 
successfully atones. Because unimpaired in quality it 
can afford to maintain the attitude of forgiveness, and is 
efficient to achieve the recovery of the erring and sinning 



296 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

ones. It atones in providing conditions for the ultimate 
harmony and security of dependent persons in the largest 
finite freedom. It is the one fact in which love evinces 
to finite minds its infinite sufficiency to await the deter- 
mination of its ideal, notwithstanding the most difficult 
conditions which the largest freedom of a conditioned 
universe can interpose. 

The benevolent father who- sees his benevolence made 
the opportunity and instrument of crime and shame by 
his son would experience no agony if he were indifferent 
to moral purity and honor in himself or his son. But 
because he is a pure as also a benevolent father he is agon- 
ized by seeing this abuse of his benevolence. And while 
his love for his boy cannot turn that boy from his wicked- 
ness in any way, except by greater lenience to render 
that wickedness corrective, and provide that it shall have 
the least disastrous result, it must be to himself a cause 
of inexpressible agony. But because of this very agony, 
which is at once the exponent of his purity, his benevo- 
lence, and his son's turpitude, he is in the best possible 
position to forgive and help, and ultimately recover, his 
wayward son. It is this agony that evinces to the son 
the ill desert of his sin, and that his repentance will meet 
with forgiveness and be moral uplifting to him. This 
agony could be avoided in either of two* ways : by aban- 
doning either his child or his moral purity. Either would 
be the defeat of love. 

If an ideal family government were the type of govern- 
ment in our thought when characterizing our view of the 
atonement we should unhesitatingly term it a govermental 
theory. But the "governmental theory," so- termed, is so 
cumbered with the crudities of civic forms and political 
preconceptions that, to avoid misunderstanding, we pre- 
fer to term it the parental theory. 



THE ATONING FACT 297 

Sacrifice. — This is necessarily implied in the evolution 
of love. In choosing to bestow the greatest good of finite 
personal existence, by conditioning a world of persons, 
love places itself in a position where it is subject to agony. 
This agony, thus willingly assumed by love that it may 
bestow the highest good possible to a dependent uni- 
verse, is its sacrifice, because undeserved. God might 
have chosen to dwell in no mode of consciousness lower 
than the unalloyed enjoyment of his infinitely perfect 
egoism. Or, he might have chosen in his perfect altruis- 
tic freedom to create a universe of persons in the highest 
possible degree of finite intelligence and power, to be 
dealt with upon the conditions of arbitrary right and jus- 
tice ; each person being destroyed in the first inception of 
selfishness ; each sinner thus suffering his own ill desert. 
The moral purity of the Creator or of the universe might 
thus have been maintained without agony or sacrifice on 
the part of God. But this, as we have seen, could not 
realize a world of dependent persons of higher type than 
force and fear could incite; hence, not a world capable 
of highest good, not an ideal world, not love's world. 
But since it is in love that God has chosen to create per- 
sons who shall have the greatest freedom possible to 
dependent beings, in order that they may realize the 
greatest good possible to dependent personal existence, 
and since he maintains the conditions requisite to such 
realization through his agonizing devotement, and since 
this agony is imposed by the free abuse of these con- 
ditions by dependent persons, it is clear that this agony 
is not deserved by love, but is a gracious sacrifice which 
it makes to achieve their perfection and to bestow upon 
them the resulting good. Hence we may say that love's 
agony is undeserved, ( 1 ) because God is under no obli- 
gation to create other persons; and he gains nothing to 



298 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

himself by creating them, as it is not requisite to the per- 
fection of independent being, but is chosen in perfect 
freedom. (2) Having chosen to create, he imposes upon 
himself the obligation to be just, only. He is under no 
obligation to secure to created beings a larger degree of 
good than that which will compensate them for such 
inconvenience or ill as may be naturally incident to their 
type of being. (3) But having chosen, from motives of 
love, to create and condition a world which, in order to 
achieve the greatest possible good to his creatures, 
imposes upon him the agony of atonement, that choice 
is a choice of agony. Choosing agony as the path to the 
limitless good of others, others whose existence con- 
tributes nothing to his own perfection, is the unspeakable 
sacrifice of love. 

The evolution of love in the personal universe is but 
a process of positing conditions. Upon these conditions 
dependent persons rise into being and determine their 
destiny. Love, in its evolution, constantly holds out the 
conditions to greatest good to all, and persistently widens 
and deepens them that it may afford conditions to the 
ultimate perfection of the most lowly and vile. Persist- 
ently does it support the purest and most aspiring with 
conditions to yet higher attainment. In all this, love 
places the determination of its evolution in the hands of 
the creatures whom it conditions. If they so determine 
the evolution will be rapid and upward ; if they determine 
otherwise it will be slow and degrading, taking wide, 
tortuous, and agonizing detour to afford conditions by 
which to possess a promised land which might have been 
reached by a short and direct route. To voluntarily place 
the determinations for which one is ultimately responsible 
in the hands of others is the very essence of sacrifice. 
Its determination is thus placed in their hands when 



THE ATONING FACT 299 

love's evolution, which posits gracious conditions for their 
holiness and good, is subjected to the wrong and abuse 
to which it is perverted by a race of sinners ; and this must 
be until the self-correction and self-defeat of sin constrain 
them to acknowledge its perfect excellence. When love's 
objective action submits to be conditioned by every error 
and sin of each member of a world of sinners, and its 
grand aim is, without right or reason, deferred, baffled, 
and antagonized by their freedom, which love sacredly 
respects and upholds, its entire evolution is an unspeak- 
able sacrifice. When each error is a check, and each sin 
a grief, to love's devotement to the perfection and highest 
good of all, the determination of that perfection and good 
is sustained in agony; and that agony is an agony of 
sacrifice. 

That all this is involved in the original project of a 
universe does not change the sacrificial character of love's 
evolution, but enhances the benevolent motive by so much 
as this sacrifice was known to be inevitable to carry out 
that motive. Through this cycle of sin, shame, insult, and 
perversion love proves a ready and able interaction with 
the recalcitrant sinner, nation, world — to forgive, cleanse, 
and reform whenever either or all so determine. Its 
flame burns only to warm, cheer, and mature them; 
though they, by their free but false adjustment to it, 
make it a torture. Yet love endures this vast sacrifice 
in order that when they relent it may be able to recover 
and save them. Is love benevolent, its beneficence is made 
the instrument of malice by sinners. Is love gracious, 
that graciousness is made the occasion for vast schemes 
of injustice. Is love holy, that holiness is made the pre- 
text for oppression. Is love true, that truth is clipped 
and carved into lies. Is love beautiful, that beauty is 
made the decoy of lust. Is love pleasurable, sin drugs 



300 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

that pleasure with misery. On the altar of an ideal uni- 
verse every quality of divine love quivers in sacrifice, 
because the high priest of the universe is devoted to the 
realization of that holy ideal. 

By this sacrifice the authority of the ideal over the 
actual is maintained, for the world and for each finite 
person in their respective conditions. And the unity 
of the ideal and the actual is assured in the ultimate 
development. The existence of error, sin, and sorrow 
is compatible with divine purity and benevolence, because 
love endures this sacrifice in order that wrong and sin 
may be self-correcting, self-defeating, and self-exhaust- 
ing ; and that sorrow may be made self-compensating by 
the chastening and disciplining office to which it is con- 
ditioned by love. 

Vicariousness, or substitution, is also implied in the 
atoning agony of love. The agony which love endures 
displaces the suffering which sinners must, upon con- 
ditions of justice, endure as the result of their selfishness. 
The unrestrained result of selfishness is the correct idea 
of punishment. Hence, it is correct to say that the pun- 
ishment of sin is displaced by the agony of love which is 
endured in maintaining merciful conditions for the re- 
covery of sinners. This agony is caused by sin ; but this 
sin, without the merciful conditions to which this agony 
is incident, would, instead, cause hopeless punishment to 
the sinner. Hence, the agony of love is a true substitute, 
vicarious agony, for the hopeless disaster which would 
justly result to every sinner. Instead of sinners being 
abandoned to the selfish course which they have chosen, 
and to the sufferings of which it must be the cause, mercy 
affords conditions for pardon and recovery from it ; and 
gives chastening effect to the ills which they may have 
already incurred. The agony thus incident to a "cove- 



THE ATONING FACT 301 

nant of grace," love's devotion to the perfect, can fail as 
a substitute for sin's result only in the case of the sinner 
who ultimately ignores it, tramples upon it as though 
it were "an unholy thing." 

Thus the agonizing devotement to the perfect which 
maintains the original unity of action and ideal, in all 
the evolution of conditions to a personal universe, recon- 
ciles the amplest development of benevolence with the 
imperative behests of holiness, and bounds the vast sea 
of evil with a "ministry of reconciliation." The evolu- 
tion of love discloses : 

1. An absolute authority, the sacred imperative of the 
perfect, based on the perfect nature of God. 

2. The propitiation of that authority, by devotement 
to the perfect in all love's action which conditions finite 
being. 

3. The agony of love, in its consciousness of infinite 
offense, by reason of its submission to the free and full 
demonstration of evil, and of infinite solicitude for the 
sinning. 

4. Sacrifice, in undergoing this submission and agony 
undeserved. 

5. Vicariousness, in that its agony displaces disaster 
which would justly result to sinners by their own action. 

Thus, stripped of fictitious statements, symbolic forms, 
and modes of revealment, love's devotement to the per- 
fect, agonizing because conditioned by evil, is an atone- 
ment for the existence of evil, in that it maintains the 
holy as the changeless and universal law of intentions, 
and is a ransom for sinners, in that it affords conditions 
upon which they find recovery, and the imperfect develop 
perfection, by observing this law. It is the atoning fact. 



CHAPTER V 
The Revelation of the Atoning Fact 

The great problem is to restore to the human mind something of 
the ideal. — Victor Hugo. 

The revelation of atonement is our next movement 
in outlining the evolution of love. An exhaustive view 
of this revelation would constitute a complete Chris- 
tology. But it is sufficient to the present purpose to briefly 
indicate two things, namely: 

i. The occasion for a revelation of atonement. 

2. The fact of such revelation in Jesus Christ. 

The occasion, or need, for a revealment of atoning 
fact must be regarded as being a state of human con- 
ditions which demands a supernatural intervention by 
divine love, in order to make good to man those con- 
ditions which did originally and naturally afford the 
basis of human faith and love. The main facts naturally 
constituting those conditions to faith and love are these : 
being, dependence, self-love, reason, conscience, and self- 
determining power, or will. We have seen in a former 
chapter that men may debase their natural conditions by 
abuses. This may be done to an extent that will obscure, 
perhaps obliterate, the facts upon which human faith can 
arise. Abuses willfully and wickedly practiced by one 
person may corrupt the conditions of a family or neigh- 
borhood. The sins of a generation become the debasing 
tendencies of succeeding generations who, though less 
guilty, may become more gross, materialistic, and brutal. 
Rejection of the ideal and devotion to the actual self is 
a brutelike life ; and the tendency of it is to render man 
302 



REVELATION OF THE ATONING FACT 303 

unsusceptible to spiritual motives. It increases his desire 
for material good and pleasure, and impairs his faith in 
spiritual interests. Spiritual development depends upon 
faith in the unseen, the ideal perfections; and, hence, is 
impracticable when the implied facts in which faith con- 
fides are obscured by that abuse of perceived facts which 
makes them objects of covetousness and brutality. Thus, 
eventually, the authority, the need, and the means of an 
ideal life become obscured from those who, under better 
conditions, would sincerely follow and appropriate them. 
Persons and communities who by reason of superior posi- 
tion and power can elevate or depress their fellow men 
place in jeopardy, by selfish abuses, the ultimate welfare 
of these fellow beings. Keeping the "key of knowledge," 
they refuse to enter and prevent those who would. Thus 
it is possible to debase the conditions of finite life until 
they are not only abnormal, but wholly preternatural. In 
this situation what course must the evolution of divine 
love be thought to take? Love, must, as a matter of 
justice, do one of two things, either permit these debased 
conditions which human wickedness and weakness have 
established, to work the immediate destruction of man- 
kind, or, in mercy, reassert and maintain the conditions 
to human perfection by supernatural intervention. The 
former would be to surrender the object of the universe; 
the latter would be to uphold it by a farther evolution 
of love. It is not, indeed, a question of what love can 
do, but what love as an objective determination must and 
will do. When human perversity misappropriates the 
benevolence of love by making it the opportunity for self- 
ishness, and prosperous selfishness encourages the con- 
viction that the creation is favorable, or at least indiffer- 
ent, to it, or when resulting adversity begets despair, what 
manifestation does the evolution of love imply? This is 



304 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

the whole question ; and there can be but one reply : The 
Supernatural. 

A great poet seems also a philosopher in such sentences 
as these : "The great problem is to restore to the human 
mind something of the ideal" ; "The ideal, stable type of 
ever-moving progress"; "The ideal, to this summit God 
descends, man rises." An ancient poet, who acknowl- 
edged his deep trouble from having observed the prev- 
alence and prosperity of the wicked, found relief when 
he paid his devotions at the shrine of ideal perfection. 
He says : 

When I thought to know this, 

It was too painful for me; 

Until I went into the sanctuary of God; 

Then understood I their end. 

These poets, living amid the most civilized and influen- 
tial peoples of their day, perceived the human need of 
something to preserve the conditions of moral recupera- 
tion, but did they recognize the method by which it must 
be disclosed? 

As the development of human selfishness advanced, 
becoming more expanded, complex, and intense, and 
more powerful to dominate human destiny, the test of 
love's ability to maintain its recognition in the human 
consciousness became more strenuous. 

It would be in the order of our outline to note the 
stages of this process, and to emphasize the points in 
human history at which darker-growing phases of human 
depravity have evoked brighter supernatural manifesta- 
tions of love. Especially would it be pertinent to dis- 
tinguish the points in human history where the natural 
manifestations of divine love which afford the facts upon 
which faith is based have been eclipsed or wholly per- 
verted by their abuse; and where supernatural reveal- 



REVELATION OF THE ATONING FACT 305 

meiits became the method of love's effort to afford con- 
ditions to faith among men. But as other portions of 
this work sufficiently suggest these points they will not 
be considered here. 

It is sufficient to note, for example, that human history 
has been largely determined with reference to facts which 
did not exist at the time of such determination, but were 
supernaturally furnished to those who acted upon them 
and assigned these facts as the data of the religious and 
political institutions which they founded and maintained. 
The knowledge of these unborn facts and persons, though 
it could not have been gathered from existing data, was 
given in the form of prophecy. Its object was to afford 
conditions, especially incitements, to the conduct, at the 
time, of those to whom it was revealed. A distinguished 
illustration of history which has been determined upon 
conditions of this supernatural form is seen in the present 
existence, fortunes, and characteristics of the Hebrew 
people. It is undeniable, also, that the central meaning 
of their prophecies and history has been the Messianic, 
or Christ, idea. It has been their blessing or bane accord- 
ingly as toward it they have been faithful or recreant. 
That the prophecies sought in all cases to promote faith 
toward God and righteousness is not questioned. That 
they were of supernatural origin they professed. That 
this profession was valid the history and present facts 
confirm. 

The Christian peoples of the earth, numbering about 
five hundred millions of souls, with institutions and 
resources of unequaled quality, power, and benevolence, 
can give no adequate account, though it has often been 
attempted, of their rise and progress, their civilization, 
and the superior character of their institutions upon 
wholly natural conditions. The central force in the con- 



306 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

ditions upon which their progress has been determined is, 
undeniably, the Christ. And this central force is wholly 
unaccountable except from the supernatural disclosure 
and authentication of divine atonement by Jesus of 
Nazareth. 

To say that these most influential movements in human 
history to afford common conditions to the people for 
individual purity and progress in personal character can- 
not be accounted for without the aid of supernatural 
data is the same as to say, that divine love has resorted to 
supernatural means to avert the hopeless decay of faith, 
and the destruction of humanity ; and to do this has thus 
reestablished the conditions to faith and love. And all 
this is equivalent to> saying that these conditions, as 
naturally given, have been so obscured at times as to 
establish occasions when divine love must supernaturally 
intervene; and, further, that the supreme crisis in the 
existing conditions to human determination was the 
occasion for the revelation of atonement by the Christ. 

It was as though not only the natural, but the super- 
natural, evolution of love which had afforded the con- 
ditions to human faith in past history had been thor- 
oughly perverted. The people who had enjoyed the most 
advanced supernatural evolution of love, fitting them to 
lead the human race in the righteous determination of 
personal character, had abused these conditions, had 
become thoroughly mercenary and oppressive. Priest and 
teacher had, by covetousness, "altogether gone out of 
the way" ; had become politically and religiously devoted 
to temporal things, instead of making temporal things 
subserve an ideal life. The Roman empire, which now 
dominated the civilized world, had become the foe of the 
ideal and the devotee of the actual. "The creature rather 
than the Creator" was the object of their devotement. 



REVELATION OF THE ATONING FACT 307 

Though the Stoic bewailed it, the state and the people 
were Epicurean. A few held that the life, but the many 
and the powerful held that to possess the pleasures of 
life, was the chief good. It was as though a benignant 
father had lavished treasure and care upon wayward 
children, which implied his solicitude for their reforma- 
tion and love; had gone even further and declared in 
words what his gifts had implied, his plans, his powers, 
and his wish for their highest welfare; and had fore- 
warned them of disaster. But at last, when care and 
treasures, promises and warnings, had exhausted their 
power to lead them to repentance, the inner, but infi- 
nite, solicitude of love burst forth in an agony of tears 
and blood. It was divine love's sense of the infinite 
enormity of sin, and of infinite solicitude for a world 
of sinners, which when disclosed to the human conscious- 
ness of Jesus revealed itself through him to the world in 
the anguished appeal of Gethsemane and Calvary. 

The Fact of Such Revelation in Christ. — We come now 
to consider that most conspicuous declaration of divine 
love which had hitherto arisen in human history. 

The Christ idea seems to have been one of the oldest 
ideas in possession of the human race. It seems to have 
been held, in some form or other, by so many tribes and 
nations, ancient and modern, that it is a question whether 
any tribe of men has been without it in legend, song, or 
story. Its dim outline haunts the mists of prehistoric 
times; and, though floating like a distorted wraith far 
back in unchronicled ages, it holds a weird identity apart 
from the myths which mingle there in shadowy indis- 
tinctness. 

Whether it be regarded as a reflected consensus of 
human need in all ages, or the more or less corrupted 
form of a revelation given to the first of our race, its 



308 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

most distinguishing characteristic is that the Christ is 
both divine and human. Trace the idea wherever you 
will through legend or myth or in the Pentateuch, the 
Hebrew prophets and songs, or the teachings of Jesus 
himself, or those of the apostles, and you are ever con- 
fronted with the "Son of God" and the "Son of Man." 
Out from this manifold two faces ever look upon you; 
one so highborn that it screens its majesty within the 
other, which, in turn, yields itself to give human expres- 
sion to the divine. 

The Sacred Scriptures have a clear meaning when 
regarded as chiefly a human record o>f the Messianic 
revelation of love made by the Creator. Our view is, 
simply, that the divine personality in the Christ is the 
Creator, the "Only Begotten," "the Eternal Son," the 
true and living God, according to his relative mode of 
self-determination. This relative self-determination in 
God is distinctly set out in the chapter entitled "Being, 
as Conditioned" ; hence, need not be further defined here. 

The human being, Jesus, we regard as a creation, a 
"second Adam"; a person who, in his distinctly human 
self-determination, maintained a sinless life in faithful 
subjection to, and loving interaction with, his Creator; 
in the same sense in which man in his original state did, 
or was intended to do. Moreover, in his harmony with 
this interaction and along the line of its development, 
there came to him the privilege of becoming the inter- 
preter of the subjective consciousness of divine love ; not 
only the perfectly interacting companion, but the embodi- 
ment and expression of the divine consciousness, the 
Creator, in the same sense that he was the embodiment 
and expression of his human consciousness. 

We have said "it became his privilege" to have the 
divine consciousness, his privilege to interpret to man 



REVELATION OF THE ATONING FACT 309 

the subjective consciousness of divine love. In saying 
this we do not forget that he was created for this very 
purpose. Nor do we know that any human being, in the 
purity and accuracy of an untarnished nature, might not 
have become a similar interpreter. Yet there was found 
among men no other "arm to save." But we must not 
forget that he was entirely self-determining, as a man; 
that, as such, he determined his human character without 
sin; and that his interpreting the divine consciousness 
was by the consent of his human volition. "He offered 
himself unto God." 

The gospel records contain a record of the life, teach- 
ings, and acts of Jesus, as the Christ; and if we regard 
these as records of a movement in the evolution of love 
their true meaning and the secret of their world-wide 
dominance will appear. They are simple memoirs of 
words and acts which have remodeled civilization and 
directed the current of human history for nearly nineteen 
centuries, and are rapidly increasing in potency. 

The prevalence and prominence of the Christ idea in 
ancient thought naturally gave rise to' pretenders to> Mes- 
siahship. We have sacred and secular records of very 
early and frequent claims of this kind. Indeed, history 
and poetry abound with the claims of mighty heroes 
whose success encouraged, and popular adulation flat- 
tered, them into either the pretense or belief that they 
were demigods. Alexander the Great, it is said, sought 
to make this claim. If so, he was among the later war- 
riors who have claimed the double nature. But many 
among religious teachers had appeared. Indeed, the gen- 
eral expectancy of a Messiah which prevailed in the civil- 
ized world in the times of the Caesars seemed to beget a 
mania for Messianic pretensions. Because of this state 
of things some writers have jumped to the conclusion that 



310 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

Jesus was simply one of these pretenders. But such a 
conclusion implies, certainly, a very superficial view of 
the case ; and these writers seem merely to have "lost their 
heads" amid the abundant and curious information on 
this subject. The widely extended knowledge of the 
Christ idea, and the widely felt need of authoritative or 
other valid teaching in both religion and philosophy, 
together with the general undertone of dissatisfaction 
with Rome, had, doubtless, intensified this expectancy. 
But the widely diffused knowledge of the Jewish Scrip- 
tures, and the notorious Jewish expectation of a deliv- 
erer, had already reduced the vagary of public opinion to 
the accuracy which conceded that "salvation is of the 
Jews." Hence, an appeal to the Jewish Scriptures found 
the original stock of prophecy and promise, which, by 
force of its antiquity, and its logical and ethical coherency, 
is manifestly that which had founded the idea, the litera- 
ture and general expectancy, as well as afforded the basis 
of all the corruptions and false pretensions which have 
clustered around the Messiahship. 

The identification of the Christ naturally became a 
question of great importance, in view of the rise of so 
many pretenders, and the alacrity with which the expect- 
ant people took up with them. Skepticism regarding the 
Messianic claim had also become well developed among 
the thoughtful and educated. But an appeal to the written 
records of the promises and prophecies was the ready 
means of escape from myth and sham. Saint Paul, in 
the opening of his Epistle to the Romans, recognizes that 
in announcing himself as an apostle of Jesus he will 
raise the question in the minds of the people at Rome, 
"How are we to know that the Messianic claims of 
Jesus are genuine ?" He squarely anticipates and answers 
this question in the outset, by stating that Jesus is identi- 



REVELATION OF THE ATONING FACT 311 

fled as the true Messiah, or Christ, in both the human 
and divine natures of Messiahship; that in the human 
department he is shown by the concurrence of prophecy 
to be the chosen of the house of David ; and in the divine 
nature designated as the Son of God by the exercise of 
divine power in his resurrection from the dead. These 
statements evince the alertness which existed regarding 
this question of true Messianic identity; and also of the 
methods and standards by which it must be decided. The 
Messianic records made the requisite characteristics so 
minute that it was impossible that more than one claim- 
ant could meet their requirements. They unfold a vast 
series of facts, beginning with the announcement of a 
Redeemer to Adam and ending with Malachi's vision of 
the rising "Sun of righteousness" with healing in his 
beams. So full, so minute, though incompatible with 
human anticipation, were the facts predicted of the Mes- 
siah that one has truly said, "By a change of tenses 
prophecy may in many cases be turned into biography, 
and so peculiarly that in Jesus only, of all the human race, 
can the lines of Messianic promise meet." The family, 
time, and place of his advent are given by different 
prophets, in different ages and countries, but concur in 
their fulfillment in such manner as has designated the 
"Babe of Bethlehem" of the family of David, at the 
appointed time, the beginning of the dissolution of 
Judah's nationality. In the gospels Jesus is identified at 
his birth as chosen for the Messiahship, so definitely as 
to leave no possible ground for the pretensions of any 
other. His being a special creation, "a second Adam," 
untainted by racial evil, is not only stated as fact, but 
emphasized by circumstantial and collateral facts. To 
anyone who accepts the Messianic records these external 
designations of Jesus, as the true Christ, are conclusive. 



312 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

But to all, of any faith, Jesus evinced internal evidence 
that his life, teachings, and acts marked an advance in 
the evolution of divine love in its effort to furnish con- 
ditions to human faith in love's ideal life. And this is 
the same as to say that he was identified as the Son of 
God. 

As a man, his faith was perfect. That is to say, he 
perfectly subjected his actual life to the ideal, and con- 
sequently actualized an ideal manhood. He is regarded 
to-day as, indisputably, the one perfect man of all history. 
In him self-love, devotion to the actualization of an ideal 
self, is complete — without a taint of selfishness. Thus 
he maintained perfectly harmonious interaction with his 
Creator, and was, consequently, holy, harmless, undefiled. 
Inasmuch as truth is the theoretic which may be explicated 
from the ideal, his was a true life in every aspect and 
relation which he held. Thus he illustrated the evolution 
of love in its human conditions. Further, on this, we 
quote a paragraph from Professor Fisher's Manual of 
Christian Evidences : "The character of Jesus as it is 
depicted in the Evangelists is one of unequaled excellence. 
This is universally admitted. It is not a character made 
up of negative virtues alone, where the sole merit is the 
absence of culpable traits. It has positive, strongly 
marked features. It combines piety, an absorbing love 
and loyalty to God, with philanthropy, a love to> men 
without any alloy of selfishness, and too strong to be 
conquered by their injustice and ingratitude. It unites 
thus, in perfect harmony, the qualities of the saint and 
of the philanthropist. It blends holiness with compas- 
sion and gentleness. There is no compromise with evil, 
no consent to the least wrongdoing, even in a friend or 
follower. But with this purity there is a deep well of 
tenderness, a spirit of forgiveness which never fails. 



REVELATION OF THE ATONING FACT 313 

With the active virtues, with an intrepidity that quailed 
before none, however high in station and public esteem, 
there are connected the passive virtues of patience, for- 
bearance, meekness. The world beholds in Jesus its ideal 
of goodness." 

And this from Lecky (History of European Morals) : 
"It was reserved for Christianity to present to the world 
an ideal character, which through all the changes of 
eighteen centuries has inspired the hearts of men with 
an impassioned love, has shown itself capable of acting 
on all nations, ages, temperaments, and conditions, has 
been not only the highest pattern of virtue, but the 
strongest incentive to its practice, and has exercised so 
deep an influence that it may be truly said that the 
simple record of three short years of active life has done 
more to regenerate and soften mankind than all the dis- 
quisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of 
moralists." 

But in addition to the ideal human character of Jesus 
there was manifested by him a class of actions which he 
himself professed were the action of the "Son of God" ; 
and these were actions which were recognized as at least 
superhuman by all who witnessed them. 

Rationalism has sought to dispute the supernatural 
character of these actions ; apparently blind to the incon- 
sistency of supposing a person of mental and moral 
accuracy professing their supernatural, their divine, origin 
if such they were not. But rationalists, in their efforts 
to account for Christ and Christianity without admitting 
the supernatural, have successfully shown up each other's 
failures and have neutralized one another's theories. For 
example, Baur exploded Strauss's theory of myth, and 
Strauss exposed the failure and evasion of Baur's his- 
torical theory ; while Renan's romancing was a mere para- 



314 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

site of Strauss's theory, and perished with that theory. 
The mutual neutralization of rationalistic theories is 
the grand outcome of rationalism. 

This self-exposed failure of rationalists may be thus 
summed up : 

1. It is conceded that its writers have not adhered to 
the records. 

2. They have failed to explain the moral and religious 
revolution produced by Christianity. 

3. Their solution of the person of Christ is inadequate. 

4. They fail to account for the Christ idea. 

5. They fail to replace to the heart the power of the 
gospel. 

6. They were forced to abandon the Christian idea of 
God and adopt that of deism or pantheism!. (After 
Christlieb.) 

Later rationalistic attempts, especially in Great Britain 
and America, have been in the nature of efforts to* gather 
up and revive the shattered remains of German failures. 
A few magazine writers, novelists, and lecturers, probably 
unaware of the true line of living issues, have patched 
together the rags of worn-out and cast-off German fail- 
ures, and have strutted in what they have conceived to 
be an array of "advanced thought." 

Perceptions, intuitions, judgments, affections, and voli- 
tions which must have been divine made him, with his 
consent and cooperation, their interpreter to the world. 
Along the line of this subjection of his nature to God 
these divine actions were put forth. They superseded 
his human need of learning, answered the queries and 
silenced the arguments of the learned, and compelled all 
to recognize him as a perfect teacher, though he had 
never been a pupil, but always a master among men. He 
read the inner thoughts and intentions of men as an open 



REVELATION OF THE ATONING FACT 315 

book. If there were nothing else to mark the divine 
intelligence in his teachings the wonderful foresight of 
his conceptions would be sufficient. They teach an inner 
character and outer practice for man toward which 
humanity has been growing for over eighteen centuries, 
but has not yet reached. All must admit that when civili- 
zation shall realize these teachings the "golden age," the 
ideal age, will have been attained. His insight rejected 
the methods by which the wisest of men have sought suc- 
cess. He adopted methods which, in the eyes of human 
wisdom, stamped him as a weakling and coward, but are 
now seen to have been dictated by foresight of the only 
possible conditions to universal and perpetual dominion — 
the dominion of ideal being, the ideal universe. 

Miracles were a class of his actions to which he referred 
his critics as proof that the Creator was revealed in him. 
The object of this class of actions was, first, to enable 
men to identify their author as the Creator ; secondly, to 
place men in possession of the fact that the nature of 
the Creator is love — that the Creator is a merciful 
Saviour. This was done in miracles which were purely 
physical; then in physico-spiritual miracles in which dis- 
eases were healed and sins forgiven. Thus in physical 
miracles was begun a progressive system of divine reveal- 
ment which passed from physical miracles to physico- 
spiritual, and thence to the purely spiritual manifestation 
of divine love as a purifying agent in the human 
affections. 

The possession by sincere men of these two facts, the 
personal Creator and Saviour, gave them the conditions 
of recovery from selfishness, and of return to companion- 
ship with God. The sincere were conscious of the need 
of access to the actualized ideal, the perfect. The actually 
perfect One was revealed in these two facts ; and thus his 



316 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

sacred authority was reasserted to them. Moreover, the 
means of recovering devotement to the ideal by accepting 
the Creator as also a Saviour was placed within their 
reach. To settle, for the people, then and there, the fact 
of the Creator wielding the forces of nature, and the fact 
that the Creator is a God who saves from sin by means 
of love, settled for them the foundation of "faith unto 
salvation." 

When his followers should be sufficiently weaned from 
the actual and wooed to the ideal life which he kept con- 
stantly before them by word and deed; when, in other 
words, their hopes were turned from the formal to the 
spiritual, they would not need the continuance of physical 
miracles. Their faith would then be made to grasp the 
purely spiritual reality of God and his love ; and a work 
greater than physical miracles would result to their spirit- 
ual experience, restoring them to conscious harmony with 
the Creator. Upon this purely spiritual phenomenon all 
that makes Christianity worth preserving has been propa- 
gated. It contains in it the facts of God as Creator and 
Saviour, self-dependent, holy, and benevolent. It is the 
restoration to man of ideal being actualized in God and 
actualized in Jesus and actualizable by man. 

The gradual manifestation of divine consciousness in 
Jesus is to be noted. Doubtless such manifestation to 
those among whom he worked was needful for them; 
and it is a natural inference that as God thus gradually 
unfolded love's supernatural declaration to men, through 
him, his consciousness of God in himself should be gradu- 
ally developed. 

The mysteriousness of our spiritual nature is, of course, 
acknowledged on all hands, yet the fact of our conscious 
being is the first, broadest, and surest knowledge we 
have. Although we are "most ignorant" of the mode 



REVELATION OF THE ATONING FACT 317 

"of what we are most assured," as a fact, yet the signifi- 
cance of the facts it reveals to us cannot be slighted 
because we do not understand the mode in which they 
subsist. 

Consciousness gives the knowledge of these facts ; and 
as we become conscious of these facts we recognize and 
act upon them as our own selfhood. The rise of this self- 
hood is gradual and systematic. It is a self-conscious unit, 
gradually becoming conscious of its own powers and sus- 
ceptibilities. From the dawn of conscious sensation we 
progress into the consciousness of perception, comparison, 
reason, emotion, self-determination, and moral conscious- 
ness. Thus gradually different phases of consciousness 
arise within us, as occasions in and around us call them 
into exercise. They arise, not one after another, by 
abrupt divisions, but rather running into, gradually 
superinducing and overlapping, one another; one in pro- 
cess of arising while another is definitely exercised ; some 
gradually affording the occasion for the gradual rise of 
others. While they are simply different classes of action 
of which the one person becomes conscious, yet these 
actions are so distinct in our consciousness of them that 
they are severally termed orders, or forms, of conscious- 
ness. But when so designating them we do not profess 
to understand the modes of their subsistence or differenti- 
ation, but we simply and unavoidably recognize, and act 
in pursuance of them as facts of which man gradually 
becomes conscious. In the same sense, when we speak of 
the divine consciousness in Christ, it is not an attempt 
to explain the mode of its subsistence with the human 
person in whom the divine consciousness arose, but we 
simply and unavoidably recognize the gradual develop- 
ment of divine self-consciousness in him and the manifes- 
tation of divine powers and susceptibilities by him. 



318 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

Psychologically, it seems only a question whether the 
Creator, whose action constitutes our nature and sustains 
the conditions upon which our own personal activity 
arises, may not himself act volitionally also, as we do upon 
and through this same nature. Let it not be forgotten 
that what we term our "natural powers" are simply the 
action of our Creator, of which he is perfectly conscious. 
The spontaneous rise of self-determinating action upon 
these natural powers is the rise of our personal selves, 
the ego whom we call I, who acts upon and through these 
natural powers. The use of these powers is our own per- 
sonal action ; and it is only in their use that we become 
aware of them. This use is our interaction with the 
Creator ; and our consciousness, in whatever form it may 
be, sensation, perception, comparison, reason, emotion, 
or will, is simply our knowledge of our part of this inter- 
action. Now, there is no ground upon which we can deny 
or doubt that the Creator may not only consciously main- 
tain these "natural powers" for our use, but also use 
them for himself. 

There is one exception to this statement that the Crea- 
tor may use, as well as furnish, our "natural powers." 
It is this : Such of these powers as are used only as we will 
are powers which the Creator has put it out of his hands 
to use, except with our consent. That is to say, that our 
will is our own action; and that which only we can do 
cannot be employed by the Creator unless we consent to 
act with him. Hence, for example, the attention we give 
to our sensations, in order that we may have definite per- 
ceptions, and which we give to comparing these and form- 
ing judgments whereupon emotions are aroused in us, 
is our own voluntary act. The intentions which are 
formed by selection of motives are also purely our per- 
sonal act ; and the carrying out of these intentions, which 



REVELATION OF THE ATONING FACT 319 

is determination, belongs to the same class. Attention, 
intention, and determination in any person are his own 
acts which are uses of his created powers, and render 
him conscious of those powers. Hence, it is correct to 
say that while the Creator's action provides our natural 
powers he cannot determine their use without our con- 
sent. Assuming, however, that a man consents to the use 
of his powers by the Creator, there is no ground nor 
datum upon which anyone can say it is impossible, imprac- 
ticable, improbable, or irrational that, upon fit occasion, 
they should be so used. 

It is quite apparent, also, that the Creator's reasoning, 
devotement, sympathy, and energy, when employing the 
natural power, or faculty, of any man as an instrument, 
must render that man conscious of them. They must 
become self-conscious in that man as certainly and defi- 
nitely as though they were his own acts, because of his 
consent. God's conscious perceiving, reasoning, wishing, 
loving, intending, determining must develop in the con- 
sciousness of the man. This is just as natural and inevit- 
able as it is that the forms of human consciousness develop 
by man's own use of his powers. 

Hence, it must be clear, also, that the human choice 
which consents to this divine action with him will main- 
tain a clear discrimination of the divine consciousness 
through all its development in him. Now, we do not 
say that the divine consciousness becomes a unit with 
the human consciousness ; nor say what the two, as self- 
discriminated, may hold in common. This would be to 
attempt what we distinctly regard as beyond our penetra- 
tion. But we do say that there is no ground whatever for 
skepticism regarding the possibility or probability of the 
Creator's expressing his thought, intention, wish, or will 
from the same point in man's nature at which he main- 



320 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

tains the conditions upon which arise man's consciousness 
of self-determination. Nor is there ground for denying 
that such expression by the Creator is the using of the 
nature of a human being; that such use must be con- 
ditioned upon the consent of such human being ; that such 
conceded use must render that human being conscious 
of the divine perception, thought, intention, love, or 
energy thus expressed through him; or that this con- 
dition, namely, the man's consent, must maintain in his 
own consciousness a discrimination of what in him is 
divine and what human. 

Possibly some may assert that creative action in us 
has not created the conditions of any forms of human 
consciousness other or higher than what men usually 
develop. How can we know that? Our only means of 
knowing what powers are conditioned in us is in becom- 
ing conscious of our powers by exercising them. Until 
exercised they are unknown to us. We can affirm what 
we have consciously acted upon, but can neither affirm nor 
deny what our action has not, as yet, developed to con- 
sciousness. In his present animalism it is a marvel and 
mystery that man should develop the higher modes of 
rational consciousness. Why man should transcend the 
brute which is conscious of sensation, perception, com- 
parison, and volition, and yet does not become conscious 
of logic nor moral sense, is as mysterious to us as that a 
sinless man should experience the divine personality self- 
conscious within him. No man is in a position to deny 
that any human being who, in the clearness and correct- 
ness of his created nature, carries forward his self-deter- 
mination in harmonious interaction with his Creator may 
not develop the conditions within him upon which his 
Creator might disclose the divine consciousness. 

Since the various forms of human consciousness are 



REVELATION OF THE ATONING FACT 321 

not developed at once, but gradually and by use, it is easy 
to understand that the divine consciousness would arise 
in Jesus only as he should become the instrument of 
divine action of various kinds and degrees. Hence, to 
think upon the subject intelligently is to think of Jesus 
as a created, sinless human being who consented, or 
yielded himself, to be the instrument of the Creator's 
personal revealment to men. Although he was created 
for this mission, yet he was not necessitated to it, but 
freely "offered himself unto God" to be the interpretation, 
or expression, of the "Only Begotten," the Creator and 
Lover of man. It seems clear, then, that the Creator 
gradually disclosed himself in Jesus, in the process of 
revealing his love to man. 

Jesus, thus gradually becoming conscious of the divine 
consciousness, gradually developed the effect upon him- 
self of that God-consciousness. He spake, acted, and 
endured as God, although he continued to often speak, 
act, and suffer as a man, yet recognizing the divine "Son- 
ship" when speaking as God. 

The gospel records note this effect from time to time. 
His own professions and doings plainly evinced that 
graduality of this development. At the age of twelve he 
showed divine perceptions to the doctors in the temple, 
and was conscious that he was "about his Father's busi- 
ness." In his baptism he publicly professed to be set apart 
to the Messianic mission; professed his consent, as a 
man, to be used as the medium of special divine minis- 
tration. 

This man, Jesus, conscious now that he had "offered 
himself unto God" to be his instrument of personal com- * 
munication to men, sought a period of isolation wherein, 
for forty days of fasting and prayer, he reassured his 
faith and settled himself in adjustment to this unique 



322 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

and exalted capacity. In this peculiar relation to God 
peculiar temptations must have beset him, but these were 
met and repelled by that unswerving faith which was the 
perfect subservience of his actual self to the promptings 
and behests of that Messianic ideal which was gradually 
disclosed to him;. To have this ideal gradually unfolded 
to him that he might actualize it, "The stable type of 
ever-moving progress" was his life-scheme — a life which 
lived upon "every word that proceeded out of the mouth 
of God." As upon occasion, new advances of divine dis- 
closure arose upon his consciousness new cares and more 
strenuous tests of his faith pressed upon him. In seasons 
of solitude and prayer he ever and anon brought himself 
up to the intent of these new revealments. As he went 
forward and demonstrated them to the world his spirit 
triumphed and rejoiced in the achievement. We see 
him thus in what has been termed his "mediatorial 
prayer" (John 17), rejoicing in such harmony of divine 
and human consciousness that he speaks as the "Eternal 
Son" who had completed his earthly ministry. The com- 
plete and rapturous appropriation of the human by the 
divine nature seems the grand feature of his exaltation. 
The divine Son exclaims through the Tiuman Jesus : "O 
Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the 
glory which I had with thee before the world was." 

But this does not evince the entire revealment of the 
Creator and Saviour. It only shows a complete stage, 
or gradation, in the process of the Creator's revealing 
himself in the consciousness of Jesus. It is a long psychic 
distance from this stage to that where he declares to his 
disciples, "All authority hath been given unto me in 
heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make dis- 
ciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name 
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: 



REVELATION OF THE ATONING FACT 323 

teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I com- 
manded you : and lo, I am with you always, even unto the 
end of the world." 

Between these widely differing degrees of the divine 
consciousness in Jesus he manifested definite advances. 
But a brief time passes after his exultation, because of 
having finished his ministry, before we find him in Geth- 
semane weighed down with mental agony. Although 
the divine Son had definitely and openly prompted him 
to speak of "the glory he had" with the Father before 
the world was, now, we are told, he "began to be greatly 
amazed, and sore troubled." He said to his disciples, 
"My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death" ; and 
falling on his face he exclaimed, "O my Father, if it be 
possible, let this cup pass from me." 

Whether Jesus had, upon former occasions when new 
phases of divine consciousness unfolded in him, experi- 
enced such a severe test of his willingness to interpret 
God, we are not informed in the records. We are told 
of his many seasons of fasting and prayer, but the cir- 
cumstantial character of the record, here, leaves no doubt 
that he was appalled to a degree that tested his devote- 
ment to the uttermost. Nor was it simply the immanence 
of death that terrified him. He had foreknown and 
spoken with composure of his death as an event which 
was soon to transpire, but when he began to be conscious 
of the infinite stress which divine love sustained between 
its perfect devotion to perfect being with its consequently 
implacable aversion to sin, on the one hand, and saving 
benevolence toward sinners, on the other hand, he was 
amazed and appalled. Its interpretation was more awful 
than death. It was more agonizing than contemplated 
crucifixion. He seemed to pause in his great undertak- 
ing. But when, by persistent, agonizing prayer, he had 



324 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

become adjusted to this new evolution of love in him he 
was able to say, "Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be 
done." 

An unfaltering actualization of his ideal as a human 
instrument of divine revelation marks his course from 
this point until we find him in the agonies of crucifixion. 
So complete was the subjection of the human to the divine, 
and so great had the preponderance of the divine mani- 
festation become, that his human nature seems now actu- 
ated but by the divine mind. It seems so because of the 
perfect surrender of his human will and the sympathy of 
his human feelings, which seem now wholly preoccupied 
with interpreting the divine consciousness of atoning fact, 
rapidly and overwhelmingly unfolding within him. He 
had told the high priest of his approaching divine sover- 
eignty and glory, having before announced to his disciples 
that he would lay down his life of himself, and that no 
man had power to take his life from him ; that he held an 
independent life, and could lay down or take up its human 
revelation at will. He had told the Roman governor 
that he would have no power against him except it were 
given him from above. He permitted the crucifixion to 
proceed, but he knew that the divine agony of love must 
reveal itself in him before the cross could cause his phys- 
ical death. And on the cross he manifested an agony to 
which he had yielded himself which contrasted strangely 
and immeasurably with that of the two ; thieves who> were 
suffering crucifixion beside him, or with the uncomplain- 
ing endurance he had previously evinced as "a man of 
sorrows and acquainted with grief." 

The words in which he expressed himself, while under- 
going this suffering, show : 

i . As a man he died faithful to God. 

2. He died in and of mental agony. 



REVELATION OF THE ATONING FACT 325 

3. He died forsaken of divine sympathy. 

4. If his death were but the martyrdom of a good man 
it would have contradicted forever the basis of all reli- 
gion, namely, that the God worshiped responds to ; and 
supports with his sympathy, the true worshiper, especially 
one who suffers martyrdom for the sake of his religion. 
The martyrdom theory of Jesus's death would settle the 
whole question of religion in favor of atheism ; since the 
concededly best of men, dying for his devotion to right- 
eousness, appealed in vain to God for sympathy or sup- 
port. This certainly closes out completely the liberalistic 
view of Christ's person and death, namely, that he was 
but a good man dying as a martyr for his religion. This 
is another instance of the truth that there is no strictly 
rational halfway house between atheism and evangelical 
faith. 

5. The only rational conclusion is that this was the 
revelation of the fact of atonement as it exists in the 
Creator's attitude, divine love in its agony of devotion to 
ideal being while affording conditions of lenience, salva- 
tion, and perfecting to sinners by extended benevolence. 

It is pertinent, here, to recall a passage in the preced- 
ing chapter which recognizes the pathos of the attitude 
of the Creator. It is as follows : We must recognize divine 
love as being in that attitude which to human love is the 
very rack of anguish. And if, in any event, this divine 
consciousness were expressed through the medium of 
human nature it must be a revelation of agony. He 
had formerly rejoiced in revealing the divine conscious- 
ness of truth — rejoiced in exhibitions of divine power in 
proof of his Christly mission. But now the divine con- 
sciousness fills him with a sense of the agony of divine 
love. That love which is the unit in which perfect holi- 
ness and perfect benevolence inhere must endure man's 



326 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

free perversion of its amenities in order that it may main- 
tain the position in which it can pardon the sinner and 
help him back to a holy and loving companionship, when 
he shall voluntarily renounce all sin. 

This is the hour of the revelation to man of this help- 
less divine agony. In the interpretation of this "atoning 
fact" Jesus derives no relief from it by means of the divine 
power of prevision which had at other times sustained 
him. He exclaimed, "My God, my God, why hast thou 
forsaken me?" Yet he does not waver in his will as the 
interpreter, the revealer of God's atoning attitude, love's 
deepest consciousness disclosed to him up to this hour in 
its evolution, but freely "offers himself unto God." Hav- 
ing said, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit," 
he closes the dying agony with the exclamation, "It is 
finished !" 

Thus in agony he revealed divine love's devotion to 
the realization of a perfect universe. Thus "he was 
delivered" to be an exponent of the infinite offense of sin, 
and to set before men the infinite solicitude for our sal- 
vation which divine love endures. Thus he translated 
the great "atoning fact" into human terms, that it might 
incite men to salvation by its full revelation of love's 
ideal life, the unimpaired authority of that ideal, and 
the beneficent means of its realization; or as he stated 
it in concrete form, "I am the way, the truth, and the 
life." Thus are the two cardinal conditions to saving 
faith disclosed in the atoning fact: the infinite benevo- 
lence of God, and the infinite crime of sin. 

But the evidence that this death is atoning suffering 
is afforded to man in order that it may effectually rees- 
tablish the conditions to human recovery from sin. The 
object of divine revealment to men, we have seen, is to 
evince that divine benevolence which, although it permits 



REVELATION OF THE ATONING FACT 327 

our race to continue its sinful course, does not renounce 
holiness, has not surrendered perfect intention, is not lax 
in its devotion to ideal being, but is at one with holiness 
and seeks to "lead to repentance." It is to evince that, 
although mercy affords all but limitless opportunity to 
evil, it is nevertheless an implacable protest against it, 
and an infinite motive to< sinners to renouncing it; to 
evince that, upon renunciation of sin, the sinner may find 
help in divine love to return to purity and companionship 
with God; and thus evince infinite love and the infinite 
stigma fixed upon sin by the agonies of Jesus, as motives 
to man's eternal security in freedom and harmony with an 
ideal universe. That this divine agony may thus be posi- 
tively identified to human intelligence as the "atoning 
fact" in all its phases, its atoning quality, or efficiency, 
must be demonstrated. In a word, dependent man must 
find in it the independent basis of salvation. 

The resurrection of Christ is this demonstration. "He 
was raised again for our justification" — our proof, or 
assurance. To Pilate, who had sentenced him to death, 
to the soldiery, who had executed the sentence, to the 
priests and mob, at whose behest sentence and execution 
had been accomplished, his agony seemed but punish- 
ment. To some, of more kindly mood, it probably seemed 
but a pitiably disastrous ending of a noble life. There 
are those, even now, who regard it as but a martyrdom 
inflicted by his enemies; and yet others who argue that 
it was the punishment due him, as a substitute, for the 
sins of such as a divine predetermination had elected to 
be saved. But each and all of these views of his death- 
agony imply a lack of moral quality and of efficiency in 
the sufferer quite short of that independence which he 
had professed to his disciples and before Pilate. Nothing 
but the devotement which can endure (without implying 



328 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

punishment, disaster, mere martyrdom, or criminal sub- 
stitution) without impairment of quality or power, until 
it fully proclaims the infinite offense of sin, and infinite 
benevolence to the sinner, and thus conditions the ulti- 
mate defeat of sin and the triumph of love, can be the 
atonement. And only the agony incident to such devote- 
ment can be correctly termed the agony of atonement. 
Suffering is an atonement in fact if willingly and suc- 
cessfully endured until the sufferer, unimpaired in charac- 
ter and power, achieves the end which involved his suffer- 
ing. But the sufferer fails to atone by his sufferings 
if they imply helpless infliction, correction, or penalty, 
on account of the cause for which he suffers. The self- 
sufficiency of the atoning one is disparaged to the extent 
he is thought conscious of moral weakness, fault, or guilt, 
correction, or penalty. 

It was requisite, therefore, that if the sufferings of 
Christ were more than the physical pangs of crucifixion, 
were the revelation of a strain or stress upon the divine 
consciousness which was expressed in the agony of Jesus 
— an agony incident to love's unswerving devotion to the 
perfect, while affording merciful permission of sin's com- 
plete self-development — if, in a word, his sufferings 
revealed the divine "atoning fact" — it was requisite that 
these sufferings should be clearly exhibited as self- 
assumed. They must evince that they were not correc- 
tive, nor penal sufferings, but were voluntarily accepted 
with an understanding to achieve a self-proposed end. 
Hence, his self-submission to this death afforded the 
utmost human interpretation of divine love's essential 
agony, and its uncompromising antagonism to sin, but 
unfailing benevolence to the sinner. His resurrection 
exhibited that his shame and death had impaired neither 
his character nor power, nor implied imperfection in his 



REVELATION OF THE ATONING FACT 329 

devotement to perfection of being; but that they stood 
out as a self-imposed and successful interpretation to the 
world of the holiness and benevolence of a love which 
endures unimpaired that it may "save to the uttermost." 
His resurrection declared that his sufferings were for 
neither correction nor punishment, but atonement. Raised 
from the dead, his moral attitude and quality unimpaired, 
his power undiminished, he demonstrated that atonement 
as a fact in God was now truly and fully revealed to 
men. He is in an attitude now to justify moral recovery, 
spiritual purifying to the world. 

The divine agony evinces that perfect holiness and 
benevolence are one and never separable in love's ideal 
universe. This divine agony, interpreted to men in the suf- 
ferings of Christ, makes the divine benevolence evident 
as a motive to holiness in men. The divine lenience, 
instead of intending opportunity and encouragement to 
evil, is reinstalled in the consciousness of men as loving 
forbearance which "leadeth to repentance." The incom- 
patibility of benevolence from a holy Creator toward a 
world of the wicked and vile is explained by the agony of 
love. The way back from guilt and moral degradation 
is cleared, and every sinner may "come boldly to the 
throne of grace." 

Enough, perhaps, has been presented to clearly set out 
the atonement as revealed in Christ. It is, doubtless, 
clear that this is not a "satisfactionist theory," nor a 
"moral influence theory," nor a "commercial theory." 
Nor is it the "governmental theory" in the ordinary sense 
of that title. But it is a governmental theory in the sense 
of an ideal family government. Hence, if we term it a 
theory at all, it is the parental theory. But above all it 
is the atoning fact, the agony of love in the Creator, 
which he endures because he will falter neither in the 



330 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

perfect determination of benevolence nor in perfect devo- 
tion to the holy; because, in a word, his nature is love, 
eternal devotement to the perfect — in which perfect holi- 
ness and benevolence are at one — at any cost. Hence, 
love's implacable aversion to evil; hence, love's agony 
because of the existence, demonstration, and woe of evil ; 
hence, the infinite offense against love which that agony 
discloses fixes upon sin the stigma of infinite turpitude; 
hence, love declares in the atonement two> cardinal facts : 
infinite mercy to sinners, and infinite protest against sin. 
All sinners may receive the first, who> in their hearts 
acknowledge the second; and this is to* "believe on, the 
Lord Jesus Christ." 

That love which is the nature of independent action 
in the self-determination of the infinite ego, and projects 
an ideal universe, discloses in the atonement its independ- 
ent ability and purpose to maintain the conditions upon, 
which a free but sinning world can cast off sin and 
achieve eternal security in free companionship with God. 
By enduring unimpaired, unimpaired in character and 
power, its unspeakable agony it maintains in moral spot- 
lessness its devotement to the realization of its ideal, and 
maintains its limitless benevolence, however perverted 
and abused, as affording the means and conditions of 
that realization ; until the free universe shall demonstrate 
the futility of sin and the independence and remedial 
excellence of love. Every returning sinner finds the 
remedy for his past sins and present guilt, not in any 
compensation he can offer, but in the grace of divine 
love which endured them — endured unimpaired in holi- 
ness and benevolence; and, hence, continues "mighty to 
save." Every heathen who offers a sincere prayer, or 
in his heart turns from what he deems evil to what he 
deems righteous, thereby recognizes and appropriates the 



REVELATION OF THE ATONING FACT 331 

divine mercy ; turns from the actual to the ideal life, from 
the dependent to> the independent. By thus appropriating 
divine mercy he acts upon the conditions which the divine 
agony has afforded him ; even though he is ignorant of 
the historical revelation of that agony in Jesus Christ. 
The knowledge of that historical revelation would, doubt- 
less, vastly increase the motives to righteousness and 
exalted character among the heathen ; hence, the reasons 
for gospel missions among them. But more of this 
further on. Every soul, whatever his belief, who' sin- 
cerely deprecates his selfishness and cleaves to* conscience 
implies, in such action, though unwittingly, the authority 
of the ideal over the actual, and appropriates the "atoning 
fact." 

Thus the "atoning fact" answers the burning question 
of the universe: Does love realize perfect benevolence 
and yet maintain the moral authority of the holy ? Thus, 
also, the revelation of the atoning fact in the sufferings 
of Christ puts man in possession of the full incentive 
force of both the moral authority of God's perfect holi- 
ness and his perfect benevolence. The obscured natural 
implications are, in Christ, personally declared to man. 

The mutual subsistence in love of moral purity and 
the perfect carrying out of benevolence cannot be thought 
without implying the agony of love. Nor can atonement 
be thought a reality, except as that action which con- 
tinues true to the perfect throughout the conditions and 
abuses of a free universe. And, in disclosing to man 
this awful dominance of the ideal, love reveals its inde- 
pendent self-sufficiency as the projector and upholder of 
a free universe who is at once holy and perfectly benevo- 
lent. 

This revelation of independence and unswerving devo- 
tion to the ideal, the true, furnishes man with the con- 



332 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

sciousness of (i) God's devotion to perfection of being; 
(2) assures him of the presence of a love that is equal 
to the renovation and perfecting of the universe; and (3) 
imposes upon his conscience the absolute moral authority 
of this revealed criterion. By the first this action enables 
the world to discriminate its sin ; by the second, exhibits 
the opportunity and power for righteousness ; and by the 
third, "sets judgment in the earth." 

Moreover, this atoning action evinces the ever-extend- 
ing arms of divine benevolence, beckoning and wooing 
sinners, able and willing to save all. Thus is revealed in 
Christ the divine attitude, which is the real "mercy seat," 
with its awful agony, the real "blood of sprinkling." 
Acceptance of these by the sinner is that faith which sub- 
jects his actual to an ideal life. The sin-burdened soul, 
saying, "I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ," finds here 
the "throne of grace." 



CHAPTER VI 

ESCHATOLOGY 

And they shall become one flock, one shepherd. . . . And they shall 
never perish. — Jesus. 

Eschatology, the doctrine of "last things," is a term 
which has generally been applied to the events which are 
expected to mark the ending of human affairs on earth, 
and the establishing a fixed destiny for all dependent 
persons. Our use of the term, however, can apply only 
to certain states of personal development which will char- 
acterize what we have termed the ideal, or perfect, uni- 
verse. The perfect universe is the goal of love's evolution 
in its present cycle; but we contemplate that perfection 
not as a fixed end, or state, but as a perfected equipment 
for future, ever-advancing cycles of personal progress — 
the disembarrassed companionship of finite persons with 
the Infinite Person. 

This perfect equipment will be the outcome of forces 
which are now in operation, the final resolution of ques- 
tions which are now in process of being determined ; and, 
hence, our eschatology is made up of the corollaries of 
this resolution. It does not threaten an arbitrary inter- 
vention of almighty power to reward friends and punish 
enemies in a special or extra-vengeful sense. It is the 
sum of results which will have been determined by the 
personal universe upon the conditions evolved by love. 
All-conditioning love is no respecter of persons. 

Our planet, the earth, is, of course, a small affair in 
the world of quantities, and our race may be but a small 
company in the universe of persons. But our planetary 
life signifies this much, at least : it is a form of the lowest 

333 



334 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

conditions to the origin and development of personal 
creatures. How long the planet will continue to* serve 
that purpose, and whether its functions will undergo a 
change, or have an end, must be a matter of speculation 
in the absence of a definite revelation. But this much 
seems clear : our race will continue this earthly life until 
the final crisis, which is stated in the chapter "The Solu- 
tion of Evil," is reached; when, on the one hand, racial 
and social abuses will have been corrected by the progress 
which will result from faith and love; and when, on the 
other hand, physical and social retribution will have 
destroyed the uncorrected and incorrigible elements of 
earthly society. 

Moreover, the crisis passed, such will be the common 
consciousness of love's excellence and of the turpitude of 
evil that the lower tutelage of race conditions will be 
wholly superseded. Their flesh-and-blood form will be 
superfluous and, unable to contribute anything to the 
perfecting of personal life, will disappear. Whether this 
disappearance will be gradual, by the process of racial 
retribution in physical death, or a sudden and simultane- 
ous transformation of all then upon the earth, is a ques- 
tion of mode, and, hence, is a mystery which may be a 
matter of revelation; but the fact is implied in the evo- 
lution of love. 

The faithful persons thus changed — probably "in a 
moment, in the twinkling of an eye" — will join "the 
goodly company" who, like them, have attained to the 
common consciousness of universal companionship with 
God. When race conditions are thus cast off we shall, 
probably, have no use for the planet, at least in its present 
state. 

There still lingers, however, a suggestion that the 
planet may continue, in some form, to be a theater of 



ESCHATOLOGY 335 

interest to human spirits. This suggestion arises from 
the interest in the complete solution of evil which only 
members of the human race may have in common. The 
forms in which the persistence of faith and the final self- 
defeat of evil shall be accomplished by our race may give 
its members a planetary grouping until each individual 
shall have entered upon the full consciousness of the 
perfect, universal companionship, or shall have sunken 
into the complete isolation of selfishness. However this 
may be, the utter self-defeat of evil, the persistence of 
faith and love, and the resultant ideal universe abide as 
the essential eschatology of love's evolution. In what- 
ever grouping the sometime members of the human 
race may find themselves they are, nevertheless, factors 
in this mighty problem, and their several destinies are 
corollaries of its solution. 

Individual destiny is the question which stands highest 
in our hopes and sinks deepest in our fears. This, because 
of natural, rightful self-love. Where, or in what con- 
ditions, does the solution of evil place each person con- 
cerned with it ? This ground has virtually been surveyed 
in "The Solution of Evil," hence we need only sum up 
here the results there reached. 

Four general classes comprehend all the members of 
our race: the innocent, the faithful, the selfish, and the 
incorrigible, or incorrigibly selfish. 

The innocent include, first, idiots and infants. Their 
innocence is not moral, but natural, like the innocence 
of a bird or a lamb. If they have never exercised self- 
determination they have not attained to individual self- 
consciousness. They are persons only in the sense of a 
bundle of personal conditions. Their life has not been 
one of self-determined personality, but merely the spon- 
taneity of race conditions. Hence, physical death, which 



336 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

is merely racial retribution, the dissolution of race con- 
ditions, must, so far as we can affirm, without a revela- 
tion on the subject, end their being. As to the idiotic, 
this statement applies only to those who are wholly so. 
There are some classed as idiotic who are but partially so 
unfortunate, but who are consciously self-determining. 
Yet their self-determination is exercised upon such dis- 
torted conditions that they do not discriminate moral 
motives. Although they have, by self-determination, 
attained positive personality they must be classed as inno- 
cent persons who will survive physical death, relieved of 
the physical organism which occasioned their idiocy. 
Again, some of the idiotic have evinced moral discrimina- 
tion, and developed positive moral qualities, and, hence, 
according to their moral determination must be classed 
with either the faithful or the selfish. 

There are tribes of men who, we are told, scarcely 
evince moral discrimination. Excepting a few individ- 
uals among them, they seem to have no personal deter- 
mination, manifest none but racial qualities, and herd or 
mate from force of merely race conditions. Their self- 
ishness is not more positive than the spontaneity of race 
instincts, nor is their sincerity distinguishable from the 
simplicity of natural impulse. If this is a true repre- 
sentation their personal existence must be thought to 
end with the collapse of race conditions in physical death. 
But we are prone to discredit these representations, and 
to believe them rather hasty conclusions affected by laying 
undue importance upon external culture as concerned in 
moral character. The elements of moral character are not 
largely derived from external culture, but chiefly from 
intuitional facts; they are born in us, hence are of that 
class of knowledge which we do not learn; untaught, or 
intuitional, knowledge. And, since they are intuitive, 



ESCHATOLOGY 337 

they are universal ; as a rule, all men have them. And for 
the same reason they are uniform in all men. Since inno- 
cence and guilt, piety and impiety, arise from internal 
elements and outer universals which in no way depend 
upon external culture, it is easy to underestimate the 
moral discrimination and strength of the uncultured. The 
morbid "animalism" which they derive from the degra- 
dation of racial and social conditions which ancient idola- 
tries have imposed upon them doubtless renders gross 
and dull the spiritual perceptions ; insomuch that they do 
not personally transcend infantile or idiotic conditions 
until much later in life than is the case among enlightened 
peoples. Hence, a larger proportion of them will prob- 
ably perish with the dissolution of physical conditions. 

Many individuals, not idiots nor infants, who seem 
never to exercise any considerable degree of self-deter- 
mination may be found in all tribes of men. Their phys- 
ical death must be thought as either a passing into the 
future state of infantile innocence, or as having sunken 
in personal consciousness to the level of merely race con- 
ditions, or as perishing in physical dissolution. 

The less ignorant, who practice self-determination in 
very crude conditions, as the masses of the heathen world 
for example, may develop a feeble flame, emitting no 
light, but evincing life, like a wick of "smoking flax." 
They nurse within them a faith in something upon which 
they persistently depend, as God. It is a something in 
which they hope for better conditions ; something which 
they invoke in the hour of trouble, or suffering, or death ; 
something for which, indeed, some of them are willing 
to suffer or die. In such crude conditions, renouncing 
selfishness, they attain to harmony with all-conditioning 
love, either as innocent or as positively faithful. 

Children and all of any age, in all lands, who have 



338 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

exercised personal determination in any degree, have 
attained individual personality, but have not sufficient 
intelligence to have intentionally chosen selfishness, as 
such, will survive physical death as innocent persons. 
We have stated substantially in "The Solution of Evil" : 
After self-determining action is once begun, however 
faintly, the personal nature is individualized, and indi- 
vidual self-consciousness takes its rise and retains its 
personal identity through all subsequent changes until, 
by self-determined abuse of the personal nature, it may 
be sunken in complete self-limitation and thus, ultimately, 
lost. The rise and earlier development of personality is, 
doubtless, in accordance with circumstances, and the 
instinctive impulses upon which it proceeds may have been 
depraved by ancestral and social influences. Its debased 
racial conditions may impose upon it disease, defective 
physical organization, feebleness, or early death; and 
social surroundings may afford it little but villainous 
incitements. Yet, the implicit sincerity with which 
it personally acts in accordance with these conditions is 
an innocent, yes, virtuous, use of its personal nature, and 
determines its character as one of pure intention. Not 
until it is sufficiently advanced to deliberately and of pur- 
pose reject pure intention and adopt selfish intention 
does it abuse its personal conditions or form corrupt 
character. Hence, if physical death overtake it while in 
this character of personal innocence, is must be thought 
to persist in a future state as an innocent person of mor- 
ally pure intentions. 

All of any age, in all lands, who have exercised per- 
sonal determination in any degree, but have not suffi- 
cient mental development to have chosen wickedness, as 
such, are innocent and in essential harmony with divine 
love. They take rank with that class of beings whose 



ESCHATOLOGY 339 

further development will be in the absence of temptation, 
who "do always behold the face" of God. They must 
depend upon environment for consciousness of moral 
steadfastness, or security, until self-conscious security is 
acquired by association with those whose security has 
been self-determined "through much tribulation." 

The faithful — or the overcomers — we term the class 
which comprehends both those who have attained stead- 
fast security in faith and love and all who, even through 
much of failure and wavering, still persist in the endeavor 
of self conquest; as also those who, while advancing in 
the consciousness of an ever-widening horizon of knowl- 
edge and trial, ascend to high altitudes of faith, realizing 
deeper harmony and enlarging freedom, attain entire 
security in conversance with love's motives, sympathies, 
and spirit. From the weakest craft which rocks on the 
sea of life, but bears for the same port to which the erect 
and steady steamer points her prow, there floats the ensign 
of "The Faithful." 

"Him that overcometh !" Those persons who, by that 
faith which subjects the actual to the ideal life, have over- 
come their susceptibility to selfishness will have deter- 
mined themselves in harmony with divine love to a degree 
which renders their companionship with God self-per- 
sistent. They need no objective demonstration of the 
failure of evil, need no removal from objective motives 
to sin. They have canceled selfishness by faith. Their 
faith has overcome the world in its sinful power and 
splendor. When wickedness "did abound" their love 
did not grow cold. They have determined their largest 
freedom in moral harmony and perfect security. They 
have actualized an ideal egoism by practicing an unself- 
ish altruism. Losing their life for love's sake, they have 
found it. All hail, Overcomers ! 



340 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

But perhaps there are pure persons who have ever 
dwelt in the environment of unmarred love. They have 
never known sin, nor a temptation to sin ; never, even, a 
hurtful error. They could, for aught we can see, con- 
tinue to develop securely under such circumstances. But, 
as among themselves, they could not experience self- 
determined security. Their susceptibility to a selfish 
development of self-love, if exposed to temptation, could 
never be beyond question. Nor can we conceive that their 
self-determination could, in the absence of discipline by 
error and temptation, ever attain the widest ' freedom 
which is possible to a person whose faith and love and 
progress have been developed and confirmed amid the 
strenuous exigencies of virtuous hardship. A securely 
steadfast and free universe cannot be thought possible, 
except as self-determined; hence, the grand nucleus of 
a perfect universe must be the "triumphant host" who 
will have "come out of great tribulation, and have washed 
their (own) robes, and made them white in the blood of 
the Lamb." "Blessed are they that wash their robes, 
that they may have the right to the tree of life." 

In association with this "triumphant host," and witness- 
ing the demonstrated failure of evil, angels who may 
have hitherto known only conditions of justice, dwelling 
only in an environment of divine glory, may "desire to 
look into" and learn such lessons of demonstrated faith 
and love; and may thus determine in themselves a con- 
scious aversion to selfishness which will be practically 
equivalent to unsusceptibility. 

Children who have passed from human conditions, too 
early for human temptation or probation, into the con- 
ditions and associations of the blessed, dwelling ever in 
the environment of overmastering incitements to love, 
will also attain, by association with self-determined 



ESCHATOLOGY 341 

saints, to the same transcendent security which is realized 
by the faithful in their self-determined unsusceptibility 
to selfishness. To afford to these pure but undeveloped 
ones the means of determining a self-conscious security, 
as against possible selfishness, something is requisite. 
That requisite is in the objective incitement afforded by 
association with the self-determined security, and the 
intimate harmony which are evinced in the wide free- 
dom of the faithful ; and also in that universal conscious- 
ness which results from the persistence of love and the 
self-defeat of sin. 

This we deem the true solution of the relation of all 
persons who in innocence pass, by death, from this world's 
environment or temptation without having attained to 
steadfast self-adjustment to moral conditions. This 
includes not only deceased children, but many of maturer 
years who have attained conscious, individual personality, 
but who, because of extreme ignorance, natural stupidity, 
or other defective conditions, may have never consciously 
determined for or against a life of faith. 

But the discipline of error and temptation, such as 
human life, here, is intended to afford, is essential to 
the development of that subjective aversion to selfish 
motives which, along with confirmed faith, establishes 
the consciousness of eternal security in finite persons. 
Hence, that consciousness of security could never be 
attained if, like infants and imbeciles, or possibly angels, 
all finite persons were to determine their characters amid 
that immaculate environment which we term Heaven. 
Hence, the struggle of human life, so far as it is a 
struggle with temptations, ignorance, and weakness, is 
only that disciplinary process without which a perfectly 
secure universe could never be attained. And when once 
sin has arisen this struggle must include the demonstration 



342 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

of faith and love, as against sin, in order to achieve ulti- 
mate security. Consequently, individuals who, from any 
cause, miss the probation of error and its incident tempta- 
tions, do not belong to the securely self-determined uni- 
verse, but must rise from their mere innocence to self- 
conscious security by determining their characters with 
reference to the universal public consciousness which has 
been established by the faithful who have wrought out 
the practical solution of evil. 

Remember that the development of securely pure char- 
acter is but the correction and discipline of self-love in 
devotion to self-perfection, in harmony with the perfec- 
tion of others. Remember that this devotion is complete 
susceptibility to the ideal, the true, the perfect. Remem- 
ber that as devotion to a great end it precludes devotion 
to the pleasurable satisfaction of means — that is, pre- 
cludes selfishness. Remember that the rise and self-defeat 
of selfishness have stripped it of all plausible illusions, 
exposed it as infinite crime, and abolished its objective 
motivity. Remember that devotion to* the realization of 
perfect being is the established ambition, the enthusiastic 
public sentiment of the faithful, established upon their 
faith and determined by their love. This intimate com- 
panionship with God, and the steadfast purity and all 
but boundless freedom of their spontaneity, are but the 
exponents of a pure self-love rendered unsusceptible to 
selfishness by their devotion to perfection of being. 
Remembering these things it will be easy to see that inno- 
cent persons, developing in the midst of such associa- 
tions, must readily mature a self-love which is wholly 
in harmony with these associations. The sentiment and 
activities of a universal life which results from the demon- 
stration of love's perfection and sin's infinite failure and 
shame render the temptation to evil impossible. That 



ESCHATOLOGY 343 

question has been settled forever. Hence, it is clear 
that these innocent but undeveloped persons must develop 
a like unsusceptibility to selfishness and a like devotion 
to the perfection of their personal being. 

Security in devotion to self-perfection is the only 
apparent object of probation ; and since this devotion may 
be attained by innocent persons when associated with the 
faithful, we can see no occasion for a "future probation" 
for children or innocent heathen. Unless we accommo- 
date the term "probation" to mean this progressive 
development of the innocent in association with the faith- 
ful there appears no standing ground for the supposition 
termed "future probation." Failure of the innocent to 
develop the highest susceptibility to love and all its 
qualities, and aversion to selfishness in such an environ- 
ment is inconceivable. To obliterate the liability of their 
self-love to perversion is to establish their perpetual moral 
harmony. Hence, to secure this obliteration is the only 
significance of probation. There could be no occasion 
for a probation, no liability of self-love to selfishness, if 
persons could be created with a ready-made experience 
that love is perfect action, that its ideals are essential 
truth, that the realization of its ideals is the highest good ; 
and, on the contrary, that selfishness is demonstrably 
infinite folly and turpitude, an object of universal aver- 
sion and contempt. But in a community which is a 
demonstrated result of all these facts a supposed proba- 
tion is equally superfluous. Knowledge of the infinite 
infamy of selfishness, the self-sustained persistence of 
love, and the actual and evident strength and freedom 
of the faithful constitute the conditions afforded by the 
civilization in the midst of which the faith of these inno- 
cent persons is exercised. Constant fellowship with such 
transcendent type of society incites and informs their 



344 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

self-love, and leads it up from the consciousness of 
security from sin, by means of association, to the con- 
sciousness of self-determined security. 

Future punishment of the selfish is simply the self- 
defeat of uncorrected evil. As this self-defeat has been 
outlined in "The Solution of Evil" we need only con- 
sider, here, its main aspects. These are the fact, the 
mode, and the duration of the perishing agony. 

In much of the theological discussion of this subject 
these questions have been strangely mixed. Affirming 
future punishment as a positive infliction of special tor- 
ture by divine resentment, biblical expressions which 
employ accommodated language to express the effect 
upon man of his right or wrong adjustment toward the 
changeless nature and invariable action of God have been 
construed in the most literal sense. Whether represent- 
ing God as in the petulant mood of ranting fury toward 
the wicked, or in the ridiculous attitude of spewing the 
lukewarm out of his mouth, this method of interpreta- 
tion is alike crude and absurd. In the same way it affirms 
the fact, mode, and duration of the catastrophe of sin as 
an eternal fit of divine choler in process of irate satis- 
faction. 

The theological revulsion from these teachings has 
been equally undiscriminating. Stumbling at such views 
of the mode, it has blindly denied the fact and duration 
of final retribution. While the former view exhibits God 
as a raging and pitiless tyrant, the latter implies he is a 
doting imbecile. The average religious character induced 
by these views in those who have accepted them has gener- 
ally evinced narrow though virtuous severity in the one 
case, easy-going sentimentality in the other. 

The Fact. — Insomuch as the all-conditioning love of 
God maintains the conditions to human innocence, faith, 



ESCHATOLOGY 345 

and love, whether by natural or supernatural methods, or 
both, selfish determination rejects the object of these 
conditions, perverts the conditions in their use, and, hence, 
limits and degrades the person who so determines him- 
self. Whoever perishes does so by his own act. All who 
appropriate the conditions to faith "wash their robes"; 
that is to say, they use the means which God in his mercy 
has placed in and around them and purify their charac- 
ters and are saved. All who reject and pervert them 
"defile themselves" and are lost. Having arrived at a 
state sufficiently mature to reject righteousness, as such, 
they drop away, by physical death, from these conditions 
to faith and love, and thus lose contact with the means 
through which their harmony with divine love might 
have been determined. Their self-determined persistence 
in selfishness is their self-defeat. Their characters are 
deliberately self-determined selfishness, and consequently 
the intervention of physical death removes them hence in 
uncorrected sin. Dying without having actualized their 
quasi expectation to "sometime," as a matter of con- 
venience, turn to repentance and faith, they must be 
thought to have entered upon a future state of retribu- 
tion. Obdurately impenitent while enjoying immunity 
from retribution, their quasi intention to reform at 
some convenient time is only a selfish forecast which 
can never be capable of heartfelt faith. It is simply a 
form of moral incorrigibility. 

We have seen that love, in creating dependent per- 
sons, requires that the rise of their personality must be 
conditioned at the lowest point at which progressive self- 
determination is possible. Now, if this racial and social 
life affords the lowest and easiest conditions which all- 
conditioning love can posit for the rise, progress, and 
perfecting of finite persons, then the debasement of indi- 



346 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

vidual life in these conditions must be thought such as 
to be totally unsusceptible to any conditions to personal 
improvement which love can afford. To those who have 
perverted and debased these lowest conditions of personal 
development physical death must be thought a change 
which renders them conscious of conditions quite hope- 
less. By no line of reasoning can we conclude that the 
abuse of our present nature can result in an improved 
nature which shall be more susceptible to corrective faith. 
And if individuals continue to debase earthly conditions, 
which are most favorable to progressive motives, per- 
verting them from the moral susceptibility of childhood 
innocence to self-determined depravity, death must be to 
them a change to a more radical and hopeless malad- 
justment toward love and God. 

The mode of future penalty is expressed in "The sink- 
ing of personality," which is outlined in "The Solution 
of Evil." The consciousness of disharmony with the 
conditions of his personality, and the absence of an 
environment which can minister to his morbid desires, 
must make it a situation of unrelieved despair to the lost 
soul. In his earthly life he had given morbid development 
to affections for merely social gratification; had deter- 
mined himself upon the assumption that this life is the 
whole of his being, and gave to it his chief devotement. 
This practical infidelity to his personal being not only 
rendered his race affections morbid and brutelike, and 
ignored or perverted his spiritual nature, but acquired 
a false, ungodly, vicious, personal character. He is not 
only unsusceptible to godly motives, but, to the extent 
his personality is determined, he impersonates aversion 
to the qualities and motives of love-determined life ; and 
to the extent there may continue with him objective 
scope or incitement to evil he is an active antagonist of 



ESCHATOLOGY 347 

love. Having lost, by physical death, the facilities for 
selfish gratification which racial conditions and perverted 
social life had afforded; even having lost the scope for 
objective antagonism toward love, lost all objective 
motives to evil, he is now a morbid energy destitute of 
those sources of satisfaction. He is now insatiate, 
appalled, tormented by the utter absence of external 
motives to sin, by the eternal failure of external scope 
in which to exercise his wicked self-determination, and 
by the reaction, retribution, of all-conditioning love, 
"the wrath of God." 

Even Satan, who, according to the sacred writings, 
was first to sin and has maintained incorrigible charac- 
ter, as well as active antagonism, will ultimately find 
himself without a Held of objective activity. His self- 
determined persistence as the leader of evil, doubtless, 
marks him as the farthest advanced and most completely 
determined evil force in the universe. Our information 
of his history is confined to the Bible, but is altogether 
too meager to authorize an opinion as to how great were 
his original powers, or how wide has been the scope of his 
activities. Yet some things seem clearly taught or plainly 
inferable : First, that he is the person who first perverted 
the good elements of his original, God-given nature, and 
thereby became the first of sinners — whence his name, 
Devil — the impersonation of the origin of evil. (See 
"The Genesis of Evil," Part II, Chapter II.) Secondly, 
that his powers, either by his Creator's original endow- 
ment or his own personal development, must have been 
exceeding great and influential when he revolted against 
God. Thirdly, owing to the high order of his intellectual 
grasp, his influence, and his powers for evil exploitation, 
there could be no place for honest repentance in his case ; 
hence, he and those who were influenced by him must 



348 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

have been virtually incorrigible in the very first move 
of their revolt. Fourthly, that he has had resource — 
which moral freedom, combined with his intellectual 
grasp and spiritual force, gave him — by which he was 
well able to make argument with the Creator seems quite 
evident from various scriptures. Especially among these 
may be cited the demoniacal phenomena which confronted 
Christ and battled with him- on many a psychic field. 
But just what class of conditions must have obtained 
among men to give him and his associates a footing as 
factors in human affairs we cannot decide. Nor whether 
in the general contest between him and his Creator — in 
which divine love must permit the full demonstration 
of selfishness as a source of pleasure and power — it 
became unavoidable to permit the contest to be waged 
against the "Second Adam," to test whether or not love 
can make a success of a free universe, we can neither 
affirm nor deny. But this much seems clear : He is the 
first, ablest, most resourceful, and most persistent antag- 
onist of the evolution of love. 

His personal activities among men seem, according 
to biblical data, to have been but occasional shifting of 
a conflict raging in other spheres as the evolution of 
divine love advanced and its mighty drama flung its plot 
athwart our world. But as the great problem finds ulti- 
mate solution, and love, untarnished and unimpaired in 
its power to uphold the conditions of a perfect universe, 
shall see the last element of evil motivity go out in shame 
and everlasting contempt; Satan will, by sheer lack of 
objective motive, find no resort but a subjective life, false 
through and through, and in its self-accusing, retributive 
reaction a veritable "bottomless pit." His effort to prove 
that selfishness is capable of greater pleasure and power 
than is love — an effort in which he had pitted his self- 



ESCHATOLOGY 349 

determined selfishness against the divine nature — has 
now played its last move, and failed, amid the triumphant 
splendors of a redeemed universe and the reproaches of 
his deceived adherents. The evolution of love has forti- 
fied self-love against selfishness and reassured the uni- 
verse against moral defection. It has done this by 
developing a universal consciousness of the infinite 
resourcefulness of love for exhaustless good, and of the 
exhausted resources, the worthlessness and infinite 
demerit, of selfishness. On its merits it has outlasted 
all opposition, has answered every question, solved 
every problem, lived down every abuse, and worn out 
and closed out every remnant of evil motivity. And 
now the raging, implacable hater of love is totally 
stranded as to sea-room for further evil activity or 
motive, and turns upon himself to witness the retributive 
process of a sinking personality which may require ages 
upon ages to complete. And O, horror of horrors! To 
this perishing process he is now shut in, incapable of 
repentance, within the embrace of that love against whose 
every sentiment, quality, and purpose he has through 
centuries determined in himself a fixed and horrid aver- 
sion. 

Prophet, poet, and teacher have thrown around these 
realities much of imagery to picture to our minds the 
dreadful nature of this catastrophe. Some have sought 
to render them more horrible by materialistic interpreta- 
tion, but our object is simply to trace the main facts which 
are implied in personal being. The elements of our God- 
given personal nature which we have incorporated into 
our personality, and made our own in perverted use, may 
give us greater agony in their reactive, retributive pro- 
cess than would the stress and strain and burning by 
externally applied tortures. Love is the most intense 



350 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

flame ever kindled — hot enough to fuse and crystallize 
the harmonies of an immortal universe, and persistent 
enough to consume the dross of selfish ages. 

Ah, Love ! Love ! Stainless life of God ! Man's will 

Alone avails to mar thy universe! 

Still lov'st thou man! — though he, by chosen ill, 

His self-perversive selfishness doth nurse ! 

Ever thy blessing turns he to a curse ! 

Till, fixed in Self's insensate hate of God, 

To him a torment is love's sweetest verse. 

Thy flame burns on, as on the ages plod, 

But seems in sin's perverted realm, the wrath of 
God. 

The mode of final retribution is not definitely described 
in the Scriptures ; hence, different views are held by those 
who accept them as containing supernatural revelations 
regarding the mode: First, that it consists of eternal 
consciousness of misery, or torment. Secondly, that as 
the tendency of sinful life is seen, in this world, to be 
self-limiting to personality, it will in the future world 
result in final extinction of the personal consciousness of 
the sinner; and so, be eternal. 

While this book does not aim to comment upon the 
biblical teachings, but is a proposed system of self-sus- 
taining philosophy, it has toward the Scriptures in many 
instances the relation of an organon by which to interpret 
or understand biblical data. Hence, we do not hesitate 
to say that The Evolution of Love sustains the second 
above-stated view. Perhaps the statements of the Bible 
may be interpreted by the first view, but more clearly and 
certainly, we think, by the second. But the fact of eter- 
nally irrevocable retribution is the obvious teaching of 
these sacred writings, conspicuously and unflinchingly 
the teaching of Christ, although there is difference of 
opinion among Christians as to mode. 

The view which the evolution of love supports is not, 



ESCHATOLOGY 351 

as some might hastily assume, identical with annihilation- 
ism, but is the self -sinking of personality. Annihila- 
tionism assumes that divine force will intervene to blot 
4 out the existence of wicked persons. If the reader has 
learned the main teaching of the philosophy unfolded 
in this book he has seen that one of the cardinal prin- 
ciples involved is that divine force cannot be invoked 
to inflict punishment for offenses of character. In a 
world of persons the formation of character is free. Our 
Creator and Redeemer affords the conditions upon which 
persons act and form their characters, but the forming, 
the determining of the qualities which make up their 
character is, and can only be, their own individual work. 
And the consequences upon themselves of their own 
action is the retribution which divine love must permit 
them to suffer; because it cannot intervene to save them 
against their will. Hence, the perishing of the sinner 
which we have set forth as the necessary method is not 
arbitrarily inflicted by the intervention of divine force, 
but is the necessary outcome of certain invincible facts — 
for example: 1. The disappearance, or obliteration, of 
all objective inducement to evil in the universal environ- 
ment. 2. The accumulation of inner limitations which 
result from sinful life and must ultimately abolish the 
entire scope of personal freedom; so that he must lose 
consciousness of self-determined personality. 3. And, 
as stated elsewhere, all-conditioning love cannot be 
thought to continue the personal nature, holding it in 
conscious torture after the consciousness of personal 
determination and responsibility is lost. This we repeat, 
is not annihilationism, but the self-sinking of person- 
ality, eternal penalty. 

The duration of personal retribution must be thought 
as final, forever. Different degrees of personal depravity 



352 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

must result from difference in the degrees of definiteness 
with which different persons recognize and abuse the con- 
ditions to faith and love. Hence, among the selfish there 
must result different grades of personal development with 
selfish intention, and correspondingly different degrees 
of turpitude and ill-desert. Everything which enters into 
motivity, whether of inner susceptibility or outer incen- 
tive, affords occasion for the exercise of personal deter- 
mination, and according to this motivity does personality 
make itself positive and persistent. And according to the 
magnitude, so to speak, of the motivity to righteousness 
is the degree of his turpitude who sins against it. This 
accords with the general principle that the merit or 
demerit of any personal act, good or bad, is in proportion 
to the magnitude of opposing influences. 

It is obvious, then, that according to the degree of 
motivity three things are equally determined in the lost 
sinner, namely : the persistence of personal consciousness, 
the degree of turpitude, and the measure of ill desert. 
The agony of perishing, therefore, will be graduated in 
both intensity and duration by the individual self-deter- 
mination of the lost. "And to whomsoever much is given, 
of him shall much be required." "But he that knew not, 
and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with 
few stripes." The. self-wrought catastrophe of selfishness 
will not be more terrible than its own antagonism to 
divine love shall make it, nor more bitter than its own 
self-induced aversion to that love which will condition 
its despair. "If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art 
there!" 

"How long the process of the sinking of personality 
may continue is a question which we have no exact data 
from which to answer. The relative persistence of differ- 
ent persons in the agony of perishing by self-limitation 



ESCHATOLOGY 353 

is implied in the nature of personality. One's personal 
self-consciousness must be thought persistent in propor- 
tion as his selfish purpose is definitely determined. Hence, 
selfish personality, in its most elaborate determination, 
may be expected to cling to its purpose longest, and there- 
fore persist longest in the agony of the perishing pro- 
cess. 'He shall be beaten with many stripes/ But all- 
conditioning love cannot be affirmed to continue the per- 
sonal nature in conscious torture after the consciousness 
of self-determination is lost." (See "The Solution of 
Evil," Part II, Chapter III.) 

Thus the evolution of love affords the realization of 
an harmonious universe by (i) the self-determined 
security of the faithful, (2) the conditioning the inno- 
cent in the society of the faithful, (3) the lapse of non- 
determined natures, and (4) the sunken personality of 
the obdurate. The ground, in the universal conscious- 
ness, having been cleared of all questioning of love as 
perfect action, and as the perfect adjustment of being, 
the moral possibility of any falling away of the innocent 
or faithful is forever transcended, in the presence of infi- 
nite motives to love and the total absence of selfish 
incentive. 

The harmonised universe will become a matter of uni- 
versal consciousness. We emphasize that this state of 
self-secured freedom and harmony will be known by all 
as the self-determined universe. The evolution of love 
implies it as an object; and it is the outcome of the solu- 
tion of evil. Hence, in this respect at least, the personal 
universe is destined to be one community. 

This is the perfected equipment for future, ever-advan- 
cing cycles of personal progress. Whether it has been for 
our race, alone, or for the universe, the solution of evil, 
incident to the evolution of love, must establish an all- 



354 IMPLICATIONS OF LOVE 

pervading consciousness which will afford new conditions 
to personal development — conditions in the midst of 
which innocent, though inexperienced, millions may be 
created without dread of their defection. They may be 
safely launched upon a life of personal freedom, created 
in higher types, perhaps the highest type of intelligence 
and power which it is possible to create. 

The need of planetary, racial, or physical conditions of 
any kind may be wholly superseded. The self-determined 
harmony and security of a personal world or universe 
having been established, like the foundation walls of a 
majestic temple, there will be no further need of "scaf- 
folding from the ground" to carry up the still-ascending 
superstructure. The "weak point" of Unite personality 
— self-love's susceptibility to selfishness — is now bridged 
and buttressed forever. For aught we can see, the phys- 
ical orbs will, gradually or simultaneously, disappear. 
The divine activities which have constituted their phe- 
nomena may cease; their splendor "dissolve like the base- 
less fabric of a dream, and leave not a rack behind." The 
real, the personal, universe will have been established; 
and the evolution of love will press on, without a jar to 
determine the fullness of altruistic perfection. 

A new cycle is begun. It is the opening of a new stage 
of development, upon which the resources of love, now 
the nature of universal self-determination, may unfold 
in ever-progressing self-consciousness. Those who under 
besetment of selfishness had regained the devotement of 
love, by being "faithful in a few things," are now 
equipped to be "rulers over many." It is the dawn of 
eternity's "golden age," the undisturbed interaction and 
companionship of finite and infinite, the enlarged condi- 
tion and opportunity of, perhaps, hitherto unexploited 
creative energies. 



ESCHATOLOGY 355 

"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, from 
whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 
that he would grant you, according to the riches of his 
glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through 
his Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in 
your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being 
rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend 
with all the saints what is the breadth and length and 
heighth and depth, and to know the love of Christ which 
passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the ful- 
ness of God." 



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